Project Mentor: Prof. Jong Shin, Community and Population Health
Continuing Fellow:
Jack Filius '26
2026 Impact Fellows:
Jessica Lee '28
Krina Niravkumar Shukal
Sungwon Yu '29
Project Description:
Busy schedules, physical barriers, weather, and limited familiarity with nearby natural spaces can make regular engagement with nature surprisingly difficult, even on a campus with substantial outdoor resources. The Mindful Steps project has already developed and launched an online platform that helps members of the Lehigh community identify short, restorative walking routes based on available time and route characteristics. The next phase will build the infrastructure and evidence base needed for future nature-based behavioral interventions by integrating real-world walking routes with immersive 360° and VR experiences and systematically evaluating how users engage with these resources. Students will refine the existing route platform, expand and document nature-based walking experiences, develop immersive 360°/VR representations of local environments, and gather user feedback on accessibility, usability, restorative experience, and barriers to participation.
Over the next three years, the project will create an integrated real-world and virtual nature-engagement platform that can serve users with different schedules, preferences, and mobility or access constraints. Students will participate in route assessment, 360° content creation, web and VR development, user-centered evaluation, and the design of brief mindfulness or restorative components that can complement nature-based walking. Tangible outputs will include an expanded public-facing route platform, a curated immersive nature library, reproducible implementation protocols, user-centered evaluation findings, conference presentations and peer-reviewed scholarship, and an intervention-ready platform and preliminary evidence base for future research examining how real-world and immersive nature exposure can support physical activity, stress reduction, sleep, and well-being.
