NEW YORK — Marylynda Bozian-Cruickshank of Edgewater, NJ, has joined the Armenian Mirror-Spectator as a correspondent in New York.
Born in New York City to parents from Istanbul, she has followed her parents’ example of close ties to the Armenian community. Her parents, Onik and Aida Bozian, have been members of St. Thomas Armenian Church of Tenafly since they arrived on these shores, more than 50 years ago. Her father Onik still sings in the choir, and her mother Aida was an Armenian Saturday School Teacher, and now helps in the Church preparing foods for events.
Bozian-Cruickshank studied art at Jersey City State College, then The New School, and finally communications at New York University, realizing that would be her calling. She lived and worked in Manhattan, and on weekends she volunteered for Ardzagang Armenian TV, as a newscaster for more than two years, editing in English the news from Armenia. During this period she worked for L’Oreal Inc., having the Lancome account for all the Bloomingdales stores, where she helped launch several successful product lines. She was also the Regional Executive for Bloomingdales, Macy’s and Tourneau stores in the US, for Swatch/Calvin Klein watches, responsible for launching it at Macy’s Herald Square.
As her career started to evolve, she married Ashley-James Cruickshank and had two daughters, Arianna and Annabelle. She wanted to raise her children within the Armenian culture and traditions and therefore she enrolled both in the Hovnanian School. Both girls graduated from the school, fully fluent in Armenian.
For the past 10 years she has been the Master of Ceremonies for the Palm Sunday Luncheon at St. Thomas Armenian Church, with more than 300 guests attending every year. This year she also was requested to MC the Fund for Armenian Relief’s (FAR) Charity event. However, most know of her as the voice in English of the Voice of Armenian’s TVNY, for the past 6 years volunteering her time for the show. Starting a new chapter in her life, she is now working for the Armenian Mirror-Spectator, Alin Gregorian, editor, and her staff. She will be writing about cultural and charity events, and about the talent and diversity of the Diaspora, encompassing the NY/NJ/PA communities, a passion she wants to share to her readers.
She said, “My passions are my people, religion, culture, traditions and homeland. My feet are in America, but my heart, breath and soul is in Armenia and Artsakh.”
