Impact Fellowships

Program Overview

Impact Fellows are a highly self-selected cohort of students from all disciplines across Lehigh University, focused on addressing sustainable development challenges in low-resource and middle-income countries and communities across the world. IFs advance multi-year projects in the Spring and Fall semesters (total six academic credits) and engage in faculty-guided fieldwork with diverse local partners during the Summer. The courses, workshops, retreats, and immersive experiences of this program integrate experiential learning, research, and entrepreneurial engagement with students leading original and ambitious projects with partners in diverse localities. Select IFs will have the opportunity to participate in the Mountaintop summer program to advance their projects.

Through engaging in such meaningful, authentic, and incredibly alive projects, Impact Fellows develop skillsets, mindsets, and portfolios to solve complex societal challenges. Fellows build sustainable enterprises, publish their works in peer-reviewed journals, integrate their insights into national and regional policies, and champion movements that influence the lives of millions of people. The quest for sustainable impact drives the philosophy, pedagogy, and operations of this program with the objective of preparing students to lead lives of impact.

What’s In It for Students?

1. An opportunity to work collaboratively with the most driven students and world-class faculty mentors from across the university on ambitious multi-year projects that strive to deliver social impact.
2. Work across disciplines, cultures, language and time barriers to co-create practical, innovative, and sustainable solutions with partners - through virtual teaming, in-person meetings, and on-the-ground fieldwork.
3. Engage in fieldwork with faculty mentors who have decades of experience conducting research, designing solutions, and building systems in low-resource countries and communities.
4. Conduct original research and get your work published in journals and conference proceedings. Travel to conferences to present your work and build your professional network.
5. Enhance your human skills and build life-long friendships with peers at Lehigh and with some amazing people in the localities where we work.
6. Distinguish yourself and become more competitive for prestigious fellowships and awards, graduate / professional schools, or that dream career pathway.
7. Impact! Conducting research and jumpstarting social enterprises is incredibly difficult but also deeply rewarding.