News

Dear Jurate,

Thank you again for your support for the ExCEL Lithuania program.  In the last five years ExCEL has provided nearly 40 talented Lithuanian students with the life-changing opportunity to discover the world by living with an American family and studying for a year at an American high school. Your support has been invaluable in providing this new generation of young Lithuanian leaders with a transformational experience that will impact their lives forever while strengthening ties between Lithuania and the United States. 

Our dream has always been to expand high school exchange opportunities in Lithuania and bring more Lithuanian students to the U.S., as well to launch a sister program to bring American students to live and study for a year in Lithuania.  In this regard, I have some exciting news to share:  the U.S. Department of State will sponsor 12 high school students from Lithuania over the next three years through its Future Leaders’ Exchange - or FLEX - program. American Councils, which currently administers FLEX programs in 8 countries, will administer FLEX as well as ExCEL in Lithuania. As you know, ExCEL is modeled on FLEX, and ExCEL’s demonstrated success both at recruiting excellent participants and securing private support – your support - contributed to the State Department's decision to expand high school exchange opportunities in Lithuania. Thank you for making this possible! 

And another important milestone: in 2015, with the support of a generous grant from the Kazickas Foundation, American Councils launched the ExCEL Abroad Program, initially bringing two American high school students to study in Lithuania for the 2015-2016 academic year and for each of the next two years.

I am pleased to enclose testimonials from this year's ExCEL and ExEL Abroad participants to give you a flavor of how these marvelous young people are enjoying and growing thanks to their year abroad - and thanks to you!

We are enthusiastically committed to expanding ExCEL and ExCEL Abroad. Your support, which has made robust high school exchange a reality in Lithuania, is more critical than ever. There are many talented, deserving Lithuanian and American students that will benefit from both the ExCEL and ExCEL Abroad programs. With your continued support, we will offer them a life-changing opportunity to study abroad. American Councils also has exciting plans to expand ExCEL alumni activities so that we can extend ExCEL’s impact broadly in Lithuania over the longer term.

Once again, please accept my personal thanks for your vision and your generosity in helping to establish strong ties between our future leaders and between our countries through high school exchange. We hope you will continue your generous support for ExCEL and ExCEL Abroad!

Sincerely,

Anne E. Derse, U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)