You started your studies at the University of Amsterdam and now you are studying at VU TSPMI, how did you make this decision? What are the main differences between studying abroad and in Lithuania?

Of course there were some personal reasons, but I made the decision largely because I don’t construct my path as an academic, I have been active in various NGOs for about eight years now, contributing to various initiatives, and I currently devote a lot of my time to the Lithuanian Students’ Union (LMS). I find it a useful parallel activity that allows me to immediately put the skills I have acquired into practice, to consolidate and to make my own selection of both the value and practical aspects of my studies, to see what works and what doesn’t work so well. So far, I can safely say that managing large NGOs that lack financial resources (when all human resources rely on volunteers) from a distance is not as effective as doing it live. Similarly, advocating for a student interest group or maintaining an informal relationship with a team is also easier when you are based at home in Lithuania. The main differences between studying in the Netherlands and in Lithuania will probably not be reflected in my answer, because I can only compare the PPLE programme at the University of Amsterdam with the VU TSPMI, but the differences that I like the most are that at TSPMI you can take three seminars instead of two, that there is more free time to work and to study in the real sense of the word, not to go out of the programme, but to study something that seems cute and interesting.

You are the President of the Lithuanian School Students’ Union (LMS), what are your main goals in this organisation? How do you feel about what has been achieved in the LMS? And what else can we expect?

I could say that the LMS President is basically responsible for the activities of both the LMS Council and the National Office, and I am currently chairing the LMS Board myself for the next six months, so there is a separate vision for each of these structures. To answer this question fully would require a very large piece of writing, because the National Office plan alone is 86 pages long at the moment, if I am not mistaken. The main priorities of the term were and still are the strengthening of the regional/municipal branches; the proportional distribution of the power sharing between the LMS structures, which is a particularly important moment for this NGO, because not only the term of office but also the LMS statutes have been changed this April. For some time, the LMS President and the National Office have had a disproportionate amount of influence in the organisation, and now the most difficult moments to calibrate this are simply to pour some chamomile tea and resolve not to react to certain situations or to abstain from doing so; The third priority is, as it is in its two components, increasing the efficiency of the LMS, and expanding its activities. These two aspects can be said to be focused on strengthening the LMS as an NGO, both in terms of legitimacy to represent students (we still often get questions when meeting with politicians, when we have to bounce off all the legitimacy detectors in five minutes, why we are operating in 42 municipalities and not nationwide), and how much the LMS can do in advocacy, i.e. expanding the National Office team or other decisions that are quite different compared to the previous terms. Another thing that has been achieved, which I am happy about, is the bringing together of the students’ and teachers’ interest groups as the two main actors in the implementation of education, by supporting the teachers in their strike, which was a rather controversial decision both externally and within the community. What can be expected is that the LMS as an NGO will have a bit more determination to choose unconventional ways to achieve its goals, for example in the issue of civic mobilisation (rallies/protests), which I think strengthens the LMS. After all, the goal is to be in the vanguard of students’ issues, not to be dragging our feet in a big bureaucratic institution with all the negative connotations.

You are active in a number of Youth NGOs, how did your NGO journey begin? How does being involved in an NGO benefit a young person?

It probably started, like many, with student self-government, which is what fascinates me about the idea of the LMS to unite and strengthen student self-government, because that is the beginning of the path of many NGOs. I think the non-governmental sector is very relevant for the state because it creates a kind of expert and representative counterweight to the governmental sector, it prevents decision-makers from living from election to election without focusing on the long term. How is this important for a young person? It is experience, it is knowledge, it is skills, it is investing in oneself and in one’s country, it is a meaningful expression of citizenship, it adds value to society and creates more responsible decision-making, from education to environmental issues.

How do you manage to balance all your activities? Do you manage to find time for your hobbies?

NGO work is a hobby, and I have never been paid for my work for the LMS or any other kind of work along the way, more often than not you pay for it yourself than you get compensated for, say, fuel when travelling for work or something like that (laughs). For other hobbies, like sailing, you always want more time, and sometimes you just want to give up and sail around the world, but when you know that things are happening and you’re contributing to them, it’s all worth it. I’m just going by the principle that the more you do, the more you get done, of course it’s important not to be all over the place and to have a clear communication with people about expectations, to have an open heart, so that you don’t get angry in such a relatively small country.

At the moment, young people are leading a legislative initiative to amend Article 34 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, which seeks to legalise the possibility of voting in municipal council elections from the age of 16. Why do you think this initiative is important for Lithuanian society?

I happened to be one of those unfortunate citizens who exercised this right of legislative initiative together with representatives of LiJOT and other NGOs (laughs). I think it is relevant to society for many reasons. First of all, it would bring the political agenda of the state a little closer to the interests of young people, because we now have a situation in which a very large proportion of the electorate is older people, and the extent to which young people are interested in, participate in, or get involved in politics depends to a large extent on the extent to which the public discourse and the political parties respond to their needs. It is in the latter’s interest to do so when they are elected to do so, so the causal relationship is reciprocal. It is also worth underlining the classic arguments of #Vote16 that it is about forming habits of citizenship at a young age that last a lifetime. At the same time, it is creating a link with local government, which can help solve the problem of the emigration of young people from the regions, which is something I personally feel very strongly about, and if young people had more power to create the kind of local government in which they want to live and build a future, then it would probably increase the chances of them choosing it. It is also worth taking into account that if we compare the maturity of the age groups in society with the maturity of young people in the election of local government politicians, of course young people would have less maturity in general terms, but if we compare all the age groups in society when they were 16 with the maturity of young people today when they are 16, specifically on issues of citizenship (taking into account the lessons in the fundamentals of citizenship and their interest in the issues of the day), I would dare say that there is a little more understanding now. It is worth noting that I live in the social bubble of my beloved NGOs, and I could be wrong.

What would you like to wish the IIRPS VU community?

I would like to wish the community to be more daring, to raise crazy ideas, because in reality nothing, apart from our own reproduced (reinforced) social norms, stops us from doing things that seem inconceivable to the mind now, but in a hundred years could be seen as legendary breakthroughs in the development of thought.