Participation of Student Representative of the UNESCO Chair at Earth Charter Conference 2025
We are happy to share a reflection written by Nayama Elsa Christy, who, in her capacity as the student representative of the UNESCO Chair at Leuphana University, had the privilege to attend the Earth Charter’s 25th Anniversary in the Netherlands.
Attending the Earth Charter +25 celebration in the Netherlands, held in The Hague and Doorn, as the UNESCO Chair Student Representative, was one of the most meaningful experiences of my studies so far. I am deeply grateful to the UNESCO Chair office at Leuphana University for giving me the honor of attending my first major conference in such an inspiring international circle.
What stayed with me most were the conversations. Everywhere I turned, I met people who had spent years working on sustainability, ethics, education, and global citizenship. Yet the atmosphere was warm, open, and deeply human. As a student, I felt genuinely included; people asked about my work, my aspirations, and what sustainability means to my generation. Those exchanges reminded me how powerful intergenerational dialogue can be when it is rooted in care and curiosity.
Photo 1: Group photo depicting (left to right) Alisha Dikshit, Amanda Bennett Rivera, Sofía Bermúdez (UNESCO Chair Youth Ambassador of Okayama University), Laura Rodríquez, Natalia Solano, Nayama Christy. Photo 2: Nayama Christy with Severn Cullis-Suzuki. Photo 3: Nayama Christy with Alicia Jiminez from the Earth Charter Organization. Photo credit: Earth Charter
The moment I will never forget was meeting Severn Cullis-Suzuk. I grew up watching her Earth Summit speech, and she has been one of my childhood heroes for as long as I can remember. Meeting her in person felt surreal. She was kind, grounded, and truly interested in listening to young voices. Being able to thank her for the impact she had on me felt like a full-circle moment, a small but meaningful connection between generations of environmental advocates.
Leaving the Netherlands, I felt inspired and supported, carrying a renewed sense of purpose. I am excited to bring the learnings, energy, and values I experienced back into my work at Leuphana and to contribute, in my own way, to strengthening cultures of care, justice, and responsibility in sustainability.
Looking back, this experience showed me how transformative it is to be part of a community that leads with ethics and imagination. It reminded me that sustainability is not just a field of study but a practice of empathy, courage, and collective responsibility. It also deepened my understanding of the importance of education for sustainable development. Not as a theoretical concept, but as a lived process where dialogue, values, and shared responsibility shape how we learn and how we act. I’m looking forward to continuing this journey, building connections across cultures and generations, and turning the inspiration from this event into concrete action in the months ahead.
Nayama Christy
About the UNESCO Chair at Leuphana University
Leuphana University has held the UNESCO Chair in Higher Education for Sustainable Development since 2005, highlighting the ever-increasing role of academia and higher education for sustainable development. Nayama Christy is the first student representative of the UNESCO Chair. In this role, Nayama brings forth the perspective and voices of students on the Leuphana campus on sustainable development, generating ideas and solutions for further improvement. An interesting concept Nayama is dabbling with is called “The Living library” wherein she is collecting heartfelt sustainability-related stories.
For any further details about the conference, please click here: https://earthcharter.org/earth-charter-25-event/ and for information about activities of the UNESCO Chair, click here: https://www.leuphana.de/en/portals/unesco-chair.html or write to unescochairstudentrep@leuphana.de or unescochair@leuphana.de