Future Leaders Institute

Future Leaders Institute
future leaders institute

Future Leaders Institute (FLI) - Summer 2026

This program requires an application and students must be admitted into the program before completing the registration on this site. Although you may see "This course is currently unavailable," the FLI application is open from January 15-March 27 on the FLI website: Future Leaders Institute. Students admitted to the program will be able to enroll here from Monday, April 6-Friday, June 26.

FLI is an overnight summer program in Philosophy, Politics, Ethics, and Global Justice.

Founded in 2014, The Future Leaders Institute offers a residential philosophy camp at UNH 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 2026 is Governing AI. We will discuss how we should govern AI, and how AI governs us. AI has proven remarkably transformative for humanity in a very short time and has impacted life in complex ways. Efforts to govern AI use in the classroom have been disruptive and challenging for educators, for example, but always-on AI surveillance technologies are increasingly effective at controlling populations and conducting police and military operations. Some envision an “AI Boom.” Others predict “AI Doom.” How should we steer this powerful technology toward positive outcomes, while mitigating the risks it poses? We will discuss authors with a wide range of views such as Ruha Benjamin, Sarah Brayne, Brian Christian, Kai Fu-Lee, Yuval Harari, Alex Karp, Ray Kurzweil, Will MacAskill, Stuart Russell, Peter Thiel, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Soshana Zuboff, and other voices in this rapidly evolving research. Daily sessions will include debates and original Ethics Bowl case studies, as well as evening discussions, films, and games related to daily themes.

All students will attend as overnight participants. Roommate requests are made when completing the CampDoc registration questions questions, not at the time of enrollment. Students will be housed in a University residence hall and will eat meals in a UNH dining hall.

Cost: FLI is very generously supported by the Responsible Governance and Sustainable Citizenship Project (RGSCP). Thanks to this support, FLI is able to keep costs low for participants. If the program fee creates a financial hardship, please email nick.smith@unh.edu.

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 2026

Session Dates Grades
(entering Fall 2026)
Cost Registration Close Date
Future Leaders Institute 2026 Sun, July 26-Sun, Aug 2   Gr 8-12 $200 June 26

Do not enroll here unless you have received notice of admission from the FLI director via email. Admitted students will receive enrollment instructions from the program staff. If a student enrolls without applying and being accepted, the enrollment will be dropped.

Review the blocks below for information and instructions on How to Enroll, Payments & Refunds, CampDoc, and Travel. 

For questions and more information, or to request a drop from FLI, contact: nick.smith@unh.edu

This course is currently unavailable.

Click the '+' on the session registration block(s) to choose your session and enroll. 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@unh.edu 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. If you are setting up a student account, the account must be in the name of student, but 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.

Payments are made at the time of online enrollment. Accepted forms of payment for youth programs are VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Paper checks are accepted only under very limited circumstances (ex: from a school or organization). We do not accept cash payments or e-checks and we cannot take payments over the phone. 

A participant cannot attend a youth program unless they are paid in full. Any participant with an unpaid balance may be locked from future enrollment in any youth program until the balance is paid.

Summer Youth Programs 

  • In addition to the program fees, participants in summer youth programs are subject to a non-refundable $10 registration fee once per student at checkout. This supports use of our supplemental registration software and health & wellness needs.
  • Some programs will offer a deposit option of 25% of the camp fee. Whether a deposit is offered or not will be noted in the program description and will show in the shopping cart during enrollment. The deposit option is available until the date indicated in the program description.
  • If a deposit option is not offered, payment is due in full at the time of enrollment.
  • All account balances are due by the date indicated in the program description, but can be paid before that date. Failure to pay the balance by the due date may result in the participant being dropped from the program. For payment instructions, visit: To Pay an Outstanding Balance
  • Families are responsible for making a timely final payment. There is no automatic payment process in place. 

Refund Procedures

Most summer youth programs follow these refund procedures: 

  • Participants who request a Drop/Transfer 15 or more days prior to the session start date receive a refund minus a minimum $75 administrative fee.
  • Participants who request a Drop/Transfer within 14 or fewer days of the session start date or on/after the session start date will not receive a refund.
  • If the session is canceled by UNH before the session start date, a full refund will be issued.

For instructions on requesting a Drop or Transfer, visit: Drop & Transfer Requests

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.