“For three months, bombs fell on our city,” said Culjak. “There was a time when we thought things would get better and there was a future, but they only got worse.” Before the war, Culjak was a first-year university student. From 1991 to 2001, ethnic conflicts raged on, resulting in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. These included the worst massacres in Europe since World War II, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“Different people went through different things,” Culjak said. In particular, the Muslim population experienced ethnic cleansing. In her hometown, Mostar, “each night, the Serbs would come. They’d take [Muslims], put them in a truck and bring them to the other side of the river.” This included Culjak’s best friend. She was 20 when Serbian forces killed her.

Culjak initially fled to Germany, but could not stay because Europe had just closed its borders to refugees. After a distant cousin agreed to sponsor her in America, Culjak underwent interviews, a medical exam and nine months of waiting before she was accepted as an American refugee. She retained her refugee status for a year before becoming a permanent resident; she received citizenship in 1999.

After Culjak arrived in New Jersey, the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program helped provide Medicaid, food stamps and English classes. For six hours a day, Culjak practiced English at the Jewish Vocational School in East Orange. After three months of English classes, Culjak attended Essex County Community College, before transferring to Montclair State University.

In addition to being a full-time student, Culjak worked three jobs to make ends meet: as a short-order cook, a printer and a babysitter. While working as a short-order cook, a regular customer noticed her accent and inquired where she was from. When she said it was the former Yugoslavia, he was shocked and told her he had been stationed there during his time in the U.S. military. One day, he told Culjak that he had just bought a car and was going to give her his old one. Said Culjak: “It was a Grand Marquis and eventually the wheel fell off, the ceiling was falling…it leaked oil and used up so much gas, but that wasn’t the point…. I was the happiest person in the world.”

Three months after Culjak arrived, her husband did too. The two had dated for four years in high school and married right before she left so he could come to America faster; had they not been married, it could have taken upwards of two years for him to arrive. Her younger sister also arrived in 1995.

Culjak chose teaching as her profession because she “felt obligated to give back to the U.S.,” she said. “I can share [my passion for math] with students and teach them life values and how to become better people.” Students agree: Culjak was chosen as the WHS PTSO Outstanding Teacher in 2013.
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Regarding the current refugee crisis, Culjak said: “I think that we’re all humans. There are misplaced people that certainly cannot go back and will not have a future if they aren’t given the opportunity to prove themselves.”