San Agustín, Florida
Flagler College is now home to the first Earth Charter Campus Chapter in the world, a space where students carry the values of the Earth Charter into the daily life of their campus and their community.
The chapter grew from a conversation between Dr. Paula Seymour, associate professor of social entrepreneurship and coordinator of Flagler’s Social Entrepreneurship Program, and Michael Bracken, chair of the Earth Charter International Board. When Seymour placed her college’s institutional values beside the four pillars of the Earth Charter, respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, social and economic justice, and democracy, nonviolence and peace, the alignment was immediate.
That recognition led her students toward the Earth Charter Youth Leadership Certification. Two of them, Cameron Groome and Ethan Sacks, carried the idea further. They proposed a campus chapter, presented it to the Student Government Association, and secured its approval.
Both traveled to the first Earth Charter Youth Summit, “Redesigning Tomorrow’s World,” held from 11 to 13 July 2026 at Soka University of America, where more than 100 young leaders from 30 countries gathered. Sacks led a plenary session on ethical leadership, courage, resilience and hope. Groome co-moderated the session “Sustainability and the Earth Charter in Educational Settings,” guiding an exchange among student presenters from China, Mexico and the United States. Flagler College is now listed as an official partner organization of the Summit.
Seymour understands the chapter as interdisciplinary by nature. Business students opened the door, and she hopes students of coastal environmental science, anthropology, political science and other fields will bring their own questions to the same shared challenges. As she puts it, the work is about bringing people together.
The first year remains deliberately open. With no existing model to follow, members will shape how the chapter works, which projects it takes on, and how Flagler connects with the Earth Charter community around the world.
The initiative also traces back to the Hazel Henderson Center for Social Entrepreneurship, whose relationships opened the first door to Earth Charter International. Henderson devoted her life to imagining economies that serve people and the living world, and she wished her home to remain a place where future leaders continue that work.
One chapter is an invitation. Universities everywhere are welcome to translate the Earth Charter into shared practice on their own campuses, and to join a growing community of young leaders already doing so.
*Read the original story from Flagler College here.
