Future Leaders Institute

Future Leaders Institute (FLI) - Summer 2025

An overnight summer program in Philosophy, Politics, Ethics, and Global Justice.

This program requires an application and students must be admitted into the program before completing the registration on this site. The application will open on Wednesday, January 15 on the FLI website: Future Leaders Institute

Founded in 2014, The Future Leaders Institute (FLI) offers an overnight philosophy camp for thoughtful high-school students to discuss big ideas in a collaborative environment while making friends and enjoying summer in coastal New Hampshire. Award-winning faculty Nick Smith (UNH Philosophy) and Eden Suoth (Oyster River Social Studies and Fulbright Scholar) bring interdisciplinary and highly interactive learning approaches to immerse students in social and political philosophy and coach them to apply these powerful tools to current issues.

The theme for 2025 is Law and Justice. We will discuss debates related to whether humanity is progressing toward justice, the objectives of punishment, remorseful vs. remorseless offenders, liberty vs. equality in law, freedom of speech, race and class in criminal justice, white collar crime, and the role of artificial intelligence in surveillance and crime control. Daily sessions will include debates and original Ethics Bowl case studies, as well as evening discussions, films, and games related to daily themes.

We aim to introduce students to challenging ideas while creating an emotionally comfortable “pre-college” environment. Past participants have flourished in their cohorts, and we channel this infectious energy toward building leadership and social skills that will serve them well in college and beyond. FLI tends to be an especially good fit for students interested in Ethics Bowl, Socratic Society, Model United Nations, debate, and similar activities.

All students will attend as overnight participants. Roommate requests are not made at the time of initial enrollment, but will be done later through the CampDoc registration questions (see below). Students will be housed in a University residence hall, and will eat meals in an award-winning UNH dining hall.

Cost: FLI is very generously supported by the Responsible Governance and Sustainable Citizenship Project (RGSCP). Thanks to this support, FLI is FREE for all accepted participants. Students are expected to cover costs to get to and from UNH, but once here the scholarship covers housing, food, tuition, field trips, and other entertainment. A little “pocket money” is nice but not essential. We request a $200 deposit to secure a place in the program, and we will refund this deposit once the student completes the program. We ask for this deposit because space in the program is limited and highly sought-after. Students who accept the offer but withdraw at the last minute can deprive other deserving students the opportunity to attend. If providing this deposit creates a financial hardship, please email nick.smith@taogoods.net.

Details regarding drop off locations, times, and other information are sent via email from program staff to enrolled participants prior to the session start date. Please be sure the email address provided is that of a parent/legal guardian, not the participating student. 

Future Leaders Institute - Summer 2025

How to Enroll: This program requires an application and students must be admitted into the program before completing the registration on this site. The application will open on Wednesday, January 15 on the FLI website: Future Leaders Institute

Do not enroll here unless you have received notice of admission from the FLI director via email. If a student enrolls without applying and being accepted, the enrollment will be dropped. After receiving notification of acceptance, click the '+' on the block on the right to enroll. If using a mobile device, the block may appear on the bottom of the page. Review the Online Registration Instructions before enrolling for the best outcome.

Family Accounts are recommended for enrolling multiple children from one family in any UNH Youth Program. If you already have an account in our system, you will be asked to log into either a Family or Student Account after adding the program to your shopping cart. Be sure to use the username and password for the type of account you wish to log into. We recommend attempting to log into the Student or Family account before enrollment opens as this will minimize difficulty and time while enrolling. Email youth.programs@taogoods.net if you require assistance recovering your account information. Do not create a new account if you have one already.

If you don't have an account already, you can set up an account at any time, even before you begin the registration process. When you create a new account, the email address provided in the profile should be that of a parent/legal guardian, not the participating student. Review the Online Registration Instructions before creating a new account.

CampDoc: UNH has partnered with CampDoc to quicken the enrollment process. Enrollments and payments will still be made here through our current enrollment system, but no registration questions will be required at that time. Within a few days of enrolling, the email provided in the student or family account will receive an email prompting completion of the registration questions.

It is important that a parent/guardian responds to the CampDoc email and completes the registration questions promptly. Families who enrolled a child in a UNH Youth Program in Summer 2023 or after will likely already have a CampDoc account. Even if the student already has a CampDoc account, a parent/guardian should log into the student's account to review and complete any necessary questions for a specific program or year.

All registration questions must be 100% complete in CampDoc before a student can attend a youth program.

For more information, including the CampDoc Support Line, review our CampDoc page.

For questions and more information, contact: nick.smith@taogoods.net