Project Mentors: Professor Eric Obeysekare, Computer Science and Engineering; Michelle Spada, Lehigh360 

Continuing Fellows:
Taylor Butler '28
Adam Golian '27
Jake Panzer '27

2026 Impact Fellows:
Noah Ali '27
Jeanette Amui '27
Ayah Mallah '29
Alyson Holmes '29

Project Description:

Can high-impact opportunities level the playing field for underrepresented students and help all students find their purpose and make the most of their university experiences?

High-impact opportunities (research, internships, entrepreneurship, etc.) have proven positive outcomes for students, particularly underrepresented students. These outcomes include higher-reported career satisfaction, higher-reported lifelong well-being and an average of $15,000 more in starting salaries. 

Our research questions:

  • Given these known positive outcomes, why is every student not participating in high-impact opportunities?
  • What are the barriers to participation?
  • How can universities increase access to high-impact opportunities?
  • Are high-impact opportunities always impactful for students? 
  • How do we measure high-impact?
  • How can technology help to overcome those barriers and increase student access to high-impact opportunities at Lehigh and other universities? 

We believe that an undergraduate student's experience is significantly enhanced when they are succeeding (both in and out of the classroom) by applying their knowledge to real-world problems. Our project examines how undergraduate students discover and access high-impact opportunities, with specific attention to the informational and structural barriers that shape that participation. Although universities may offer transformative opportunities, students often lack the information, advising, time, or financial resources needed to pursue them. We are investigating how tools such as the Lehigh360 Database, advising chatbot, and program access audit (audit tool assessing barriers to student access) may help identify and address these barriers. Our goal is to develop evidence-based interventions that make high-impact opportunities more accessible and equitable, enabling students to benefit from them throughout their undergraduate experience.  

In spring 2026, the team published a paper, “Personas and Motivations of University Students Pursuing High-Impact Opportunities” in Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education summarizing the findings of 77 student interviews conducted in Summer 2024. For 2027,the team will be focusing on writing an additional paper focused on insights from student interviews conducted in Summer 2026. ImpactTrails serves as the "think tank" of Lehigh360, doing research on students' experiences, understanding what challenges they face, and designing solutions that Lehigh360 can implement right here on Lehigh’s campus. 

Open to all majors 

Desired Skills: Qualitative research, communication, interviewing, editing, writing, user experience analysis, iterative product design, Drupal experience, website design, AI prompt engineering