Karolina Mazetyte is the co-founder and President of Youth to Youth initiative, that aims to inspire and empower youth worldwide through actions and projects implementation on local, regional and international levels. Karolina is also involved in volunteering for various initiatives that inspires youth towards growth and has been the reason for many to gain opportunities too. She is also Peace Revolution’s European Peace Summit Coordinator. To grow so high, at the early age of 26, was not an easy journey for her.

Born and brought up in a not so rich family in Lithuania, with her father who was an alcoholic and mother, who was sick due to depression, Karolina always craved for love in her life. When her parents could not take care of her anymore, her grandparents decided to grow her up. From then, she always wanted to be the reason to spread love to everybody around her; she knew the value of it. She always dreamed to become a politician so that she could help others with what they needed. She pursued her bachelors degree in Political science from Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. Her grandmother always taught her that education is the biggest asset of life that could never be stolen. Hence, she was made to do her masters from Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. Her stay at Hungary changed her way of life. Karolina was unable to communicate with people, since she did not know English, which was the language spoken by most of them at the university, since they were all from various cities and countries and hence, English was the language used for conversations. But, this moment of not being able to connect with others, did not shatter her, rather inspired her to learn the language. With all the passion to learn, she was able to converse in English in a month’s time. This was the first achievement of her life she says, “Whenever I would go out with friends at the university, I would not talk to them since I was unable to communicate in English, but everyone thought I was a very quiet girl. It was surprising for them after a month when they actually found me talking more. The incident might seem silly, but this phase of one month taught me that nothing is impossible to achieve in this world! Hungary was the place that taught me what life is. I got connected with people from different places; I wanted to live abroad for some more time, to connect with more people and learn from them. ”

During her holidays at the university, when she had planned to travel to different places, she decided she would do something different then. Having had a lot of stage fear, she wanted to overcome the fear, “To overcome fear, the only solution was to do what I actually feared of. So, I decided I would go to a school and volunteer to teach the kids. I had confidence since I knew that the kids were younger and they would listen to what I said, but this activity infact helped me overcome my fear” states Karolina. That was the second step that increased her confidence level. Meanwhile, she began to attend various events where she could learn from people who have walked the path to success. Karolina realized she wanted to create opportunities for more people and that was when she decided to start something on her own. Along with people whom she got connected at a few events, she started Youth to Youth Initiative. “Our first team formed had people from 9 different countries. By then, I had learned that, when people with common passion join hands, they could create revolution and is the same with us. We started with Youth to Youth Summit, a platform where people could come together, discuss on things what matters to them and raise voices without any agenda. We had many people who were active and got more involved in various projects.” is the small history behind the founding of Youth to Youth Summit.

During one of her travels, she wanted to learn more about Buddhism, when she met a friend who helped her understand the value of practicing meditation. Slowly, it helped her control her emotions. She recalls how the practice became the reason for a huge change in her life, “From my childhood, having faced a lot of problems in the family, the incidents had made me a person who was short tempered. I was hurt again and again, at that early age of 7. As I grew up, the behaviour of not being able to control my emotions continued. When I travelled and learned about meditation, it helped me a lot. It made me to forgive people and forget all the negative incidents. Meditation increased the positivity in me and I have continued to practice.” Karolina is also a Peace Coach and Meditation Trainer at Peace Revolution.

In the month of August 2015, she joined to be a part of the organizing team of the 1st European Peace Summit 2016 that is scheduled for 4th to 7th of April 2016. Having had a lot of experience organizing events, Karolina has been able to perform to her best to help make the event successful. She has also been invited as a speaker to various events. She reminisces the first time she was invited to address a crowd, “There were 900 people I had to address, when I was invited as a speaker for the fist time. I was shivering then. Now when I speak, I feel proud that I am able to express the voices of many youngsters of my age.”
Karolina continues to inspire the world through her work with various organization. She has been invited by various platforms like SI Summer Academy for Young Professionals, 5th EuroArab Youth Forum on Learning and Practicing Citizenship, and many others to represent Youth to Youth initiative. With various experiences in guiding youngsters, helping like-minded people connect, facing numerous of personal and professional challenges, travelling more than 30 different countries at such an early age, she shares some of the most important learnings from her journey of life, “I learned that life is all about letting go off bad things and cherishing the good ones that happen in life. Being a young woman, it was not easy for me to push through the phases where I had numerous of challenges. What kept me going was the belief.  Having belief in one’s work and being clear with the vision is important. People were very skeptical about our work in the beginning, but slowly they believed when they found us continuing with so much passion. Trusting the team and being transparent, plays a huge role in growing any organization and that’s what I did. There is nothing that is impossible in life. If you are walking in the right path, you are bound to face failure. Accepting failure, unlearning the wrong lessons and relearning the right ones through the process is important."