FOUNDER

Suzietta Smith is the founder of Support by Suz. She is TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certified and has a passion for refugees and education. Suzietta is fluent in English and Spanish.

Suzietta attends the University of Texas at Arlington and studies Public Health and Spanish. In her free time, she loves spending time outdoors and being with friends/family. Suzietta is a believer in Jesus and is in active in her local Baptist Student Ministry in Denison, Texas. She currently volunteers teaching English to refugees in Syria and Uganda. Her work is through the non-profit organization Paper Airplanes. She has a passion for fitness, nutrition, and wellness which stems from her background in Public Health. For fun and extra cash, she sells recycled fashion and shoes on Poshmark & is an ambassador for the company. Suzietta is also a huge Dallas Cowboys fan!

Let us time travel back to Nicaragua in the 1970s for a moment. We have to start by talking about Suzietta’s family situation. Her maternal grandfather was a General and passed away during the Nicaraguan Revolution between the Sandinistas and the Contras. Her maternal grandmother took Suzietta’s mother and her mother’s siblings to the American Embassy and sent the then children to America for their safety. They came to America alone, with their mother’s dream of a better life and an education and little else. As such, Suzietta has learned from the beginning the value of a work ethic and to not take anything for granted; she has taken her education seriously as she knows firsthand the value of an education in this country. Suzietta knows how important her education is to her future, as such, Suzietta has amassed an impressive weighted average of a 4.0 at the University of Texas at Arlington. She will graduate in 2024.

Suzietta’s mother coming to America as a young girl and being a refugee ignited a passion for helping others just like her mother. As a result, Support by Suz was formed.

Not only has Suzietta been a tremendous student, but she has had to maintain that high level of work while balancing her time working and serving as a volunteer in a plethora of activities throughout the years. She has a warm smile that radiates kindness and genuine warmth to her students. She has taught freshman UTA students for two years as a Peer Academic Leader through the Student Success department. Suzietta has served in many other volunteer organizations such as Project Transformation, the Texoma Health Foundation, Mission Arlington, Safe Haven of Tarrant County, and more. These organizations have provided her an avenue by which to give to others in need. Suzietta does not have much excess to give herself but always selflessly saves what she does have in order to give to others. The examples of Suzietta trying to share goodness throughout both our community and beyond are many. She is always attempting to make someone else’s day better and to exude an effervescence that would brighten the hardest of hearts.

The good she attempts to bring to her community has been recognized by community members who awarded her with the Rotary Youth Leadership Award in August of 2017, Reba’s Ranch House Intern of the Year in 2018, and she was chosen as a Terry Scholar which is a full-ride scholarship to select D1 universities in Texas. She was recently selected as Financial Well-Being Champion at her workplace in September 2023. She was also awarded Financial Well-Being Champion of the Quarter out of over 80 bank locations in Texas and Oklahoma in October 2023. In addition, Suzietta was recently awarded Rookie of the Year by First United Bank in December of 2023.