ExCEL Abroad

ExCEL Abroad is the reciprocal extension of Exchanges for Culture, Education, and Leadership (ExCEL). It provides scholarships for high school students from the United States to live and study in Lithuania for one academic year.

Program participants serve as “Youth Ambassadors” of the United States in Lithuania. By forming lasting relationships within their host community, participants promote mutual understanding between the U.S and Lithuania. 

Students live with a host family, attend a local high school, and engage in activities to learn about Lithuania’s people, culture, and values. Such activities can be through the host high school, through community organizations, through an independent study project, and through community service, in which participants are expected to take part. 

ExCEL Abroad is made possible by a generous grant from the Kazickas Family Foundation. A total of 7 American high school students have already participated in ExCEL Abroad and traveled to Lithuania: Emma Maxwell and Karissa Noragon (2015 – 2016), Suzanna Larkin (2016-2017), Belinda Escamilla and Mallory Milestone (2017-2018), Aya Obeid and James Heatley (2018 - 2019).

In 2019-2020 an American student Miette Crim from Bryan, Texas will be attending Salomeja Neris High School in Vilnius. Having just finished 12th grade, she will be participating in ExCEL Abroad as a gap year student. Miette has been studying Russian language for almost 3 years and participated in the National Security Language Initiative for Youth program last summer, spending 6 weeks in Chisinau, Moldova studying Russian. In her free time, she enjoys playing the guitar and violin, studying languages and reading. Miette is excited to explore the unique culture and history of Lithuania, and is particularly interested in learning the language. She hopes that through immersing herself in the culture by living with a host family, attending a local high school, and participating in many cultural activities in Vilnius, she will be able to excel in her language studies and discover more about the community. Miette is looking forward to making many new friends by expressing an understanding and appreciation for Lithuania, and sharing American culture. She also looks forward to becoming involved in many community service activities while she is in Lithuania, in order to give back and show thanks to her host country. By the end of the 10-month cultural exchange program, Miette hopes be skilled enough in Lithuanian to be able to easily interact with native speakers, and plans to continue studying the language when she returns to the United States.