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The Roots of AGC

It all started with one vision for a better future. At the age of 23, Sarah Elizabeth Ippel rode her bike down to the Chicago Board of Education with a simple request; to reimagine what is possible in public education. The Academy for Global Citizenship opened in a former dental tool factory in 2008 with a mission to empower children to become active global citizens by positively impacting their community and the world beyond.

Our Founder

Sarah Elizabeth's life mission is education reform. Throughout her career, she has traveled to over 80 different countries across 6 continents, extensively examining educational philosophies and world languages, as well as creating international alliances that have contributed to the design and culture of the Academy for Global Citizenship. In addition to studying the application of the International Baccalaureate approach in various cultural contexts across the globe, her earlier initiatives included the development and implementation of globally cooperative literacy programs for orphan children in northern Tanzania.

Throughout her five-year term as Vice President of Education on the governing board of the United Nations Association, Sarah Elizabeth fostered

broader implementation of The Growing Connection, a globally collaborative organic gardening initiative established to cross-culturally connect children and educators.

In 2010, Sarah Elizabeth was recognized with Chicago Magazine's Green Award and was selected as a United States Delegate to Terra Madre, where she met with representatives from over 60 nations to discuss the sustainability of our local and global food systems. When she is not traveling around the world sharing the Academy for Global Citizenship's vision for systemic change, Sarah Elizabeth enjoys working on her plans to build a net-positive energy home in Chicago.

“The Academy for Global Citizenship is a learning laboratory that was founded to foster broader systemic change. Our larger vision is focused on extracting and scaling modules of innovation to change the way districts across our nation envision teaching and learning in the 21st century.”

– SARAH ELIZABETH IPPEL