Liza Miezejeski | Founder

Founder Liza Miezejeski has extensive experience both personally and professionally in education and immigration. Going back to the earliest days of her career, her first internships were in the US public school system and with the Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven, Connecticut. 

It was around this time that the looming fear of student debt, the pressure of American college admissions, and Liza’s desire to see the world reached its peak. So, when she heard a 2015 NPR broadcast about Americans pursuing their full degrees in Germany, where tuition was free, she was inspired.

By 2017, Liza was packing her bags and boarding a flight to Prague, Czech Republic, to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Socio-Cultural Humanities at Anglo-American University. While in Prague, her career continued to take shape. She worked as an English Second Language teacher, as well as advised aspiring international students and their families exploring their higher education opportunities in the Czech Republic and beyond.

In her third year at AAU, Liza joined the Student Council. The following semester, she was elected student body president and sat on the Board of Trustees Nominating Committee. Here, she not only grew as a guide for incoming international students from around the world, but she also gained insight into the internal processes and operations of a university. At the same time, Liza began sharing her advice on social media. What started as informal advice learned through her own experience evolved into creating informative videos viewed by millions. And, in a full-circle moment, she was granted the opportunity to be featured on NPR, as well as several other media outlets.

As graduation approached, her digital community continued to grow. AAU took notice, offering her a recruitment position. In her first two years, Liza helped 80 students move to Prague while also navigating her second international move. Balancing her personal desires and career aspirations, Liza found herself in Brussels, Belgium, where she began her graduate degree in Digital Media at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Liza is living proof of concept. After graduating from the VUB, she secured a work permit in Belgium and became a communications consultant with the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and Atmospheric Monitoring Service. But she found that she kept returning to the idea of creating a way to more directly help American students pursue affordable education and a feasible path to a life abroad and the idea behind Skola began to take shape. 

Skola is the culmination of the work she began over 10 years ago. Skola allows Liza and her team to work with students on an individual level. The path to a life abroad is not “one-size-fits-all.” Taking into consideration each student’s academic interests, career ambitions, and individual character, the team can set each student up for long-term success.

Liza still calls Brussels home and will soon check another item off her immigration bucket list by applying for Belgian citizenship through naturalization.