November 6, 2026
Lehigh Expands Global Social Impact Fellowships to Brazil Through UNISINOS Partnership
Five impact-focused projects will launch in 2027, building on a growing collaboration in research, innovation and experiential learning. Lehigh University is expanding its Global Social Impact Fellowship (GSIF) program to Brazil in 2027, launching five projects addressing challenges in environmental sustainability, public health and accessible medical technologies. The expansion builds on a partnership with Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) that began in recent years and has since grown to include a humanitarian...
November 3, 2026
Lehigh Impact Fellows Advance Well-Being Through Climate Education, Sustainability and Nature Access
Across India, Kazakhstan and Lehigh’s campus, Impact Fellowship teams are exploring how research, design and technology innovation can support well-being by helping people learn, make healthy choices and engage with the environments around them. For a child in India, that might mean using a hands-on experiment to better understand and deal with climate change. For a student in Kazakhstan, it could mean developing sustainable habits through a mobile game. On Lehigh’s campus, it might be...
October 29, 2026
Sustainable Futures Fellowship Marks Successful First Year
Over the last decade, Lehigh University's Impact Fellowship programs have challenged students to work across disciplines and cultures, tackle complex problems and turn ideas into real-world impact. But what comes after an Impact Fellowship? While many students continue advancing their projects or take on new challenges, others seek opportunities to share what they have learned, mentor fellow students and inspire the next generation of changemakers. The inaugural year of the Creative Inquiry–Lee Iacocca Institute Sustainable...
October 26, 2026
Impact Fellowships Alumni Spotlight: Will Yaeger ’24 Explores the Power of Fungi to Address Agricultural Challenges
For Will Yaeger ’24, a fascination with fungi became a way to explore a much larger question: How can biological research help address challenges in agriculture and conservation? He began pursuing that question at Lehigh through GRO Mushrooms, a Global Social Impact Fellowship project developing low-tech mushroom cultivation systems to help address food insecurity in Sierra Leone. Three years with the project helped shape a research path that later took him to the Peruvian Amazon...
October 19, 2026
Impact Fellowships Alumni Spotlight: Jake Feuerstein '26, global studies & bioengineering
Jake recently began his Ph.D. candidacy in biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is developing biosensors designed to provide continuous, point-of-care and clinically relevant data for diagnosing and treating disease. But before this phase of his life, he was a three-year Global Social Impact Fellow on the SicklED project team. That team worked to develop a proof-of-concept diagnostic device for screening patients for sickle cell disease in Sierra...
September 29, 2026
Impact Fellowships Alumni Spotlight: David Tauman '23 civil engineering and current MS student in catastrophe Modeling and Resilience
David Tauman ’23, a civil engineering graduate and current M.S. student in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience, is now a staff engineer in the Structural Design Department at Dewberry in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where he provides design and construction support services for bridge structures throughout the state. Before beginning his career, in his first year as a Lehigh undergraduate, Tauman joined the Global Social Impact Fellowship program on the GRO Mushrooms team in 2020. He continued...
September 24, 2026
Beyond the Games: Student-Athletes Making an Impact
Beyond the Games: Student-Athletes Making an Impact Lehigh student-athletes balance Division I competition with research, project work and fieldwork around the world through the Impact Fellowship program. Can a Division I student-athlete train year-round, take on ambitious research and also travel for fieldwork around the world? For a group of Lehigh student-athletes participating in the Impact Fellowship program, the answer is yes. It takes careful planning, communication and some very full days, but the students...
September 21, 2026
Student Spotlight - Uzma Khan
Fulbright Scholar Uzma Khan came to Lehigh University from Pakistan with a background in educational technology and a clear interest in how technology can improve learning. Before Lehigh, Khan designed and managed digital learning products and learning analytics for public schools in Pakistan. She came to Lehigh in 2025 to pursue an M.S. in Instructional Technology and deepen her understanding of how technology can be designed around real educational needs. Those same interests led her...
September 3, 2026
Khanjan Mehta Inducted into Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship
Khanjan Mehta Inducted into Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship The recognition honors Mehta’s collaborative leadership in integrating academic inquiry with community partnerships toward meaningful societal impact. Khanjan Mehta, Lehigh’s vice provost for Creative Inquiry, has been inducted into the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES) as a member of its 2026 class. Mehta is one of 24 new members inducted during a July 29 ceremony marking the academy’s 12th anniversary. ACES members span six continents...
August 14, 2026
Experiencing the ‘ah,’ ‘aha’ and ‘ha-ha’
August 3, 2026
Lehigh Summer Research Expo Highlights Student Research and Real-World Impact
When Thomas E. Sulpizio ’85G was an undergraduate, he considered himself fortunate to secure a summer internship that allowed him to apply what he was learning beyond the classroom. Decades later, serving as a judge at Lehigh’s Summer Research Expo, he saw students gaining that kind of experience early in their college careers and across a wide range of disciplines. “What impressed me most was the depth of knowledge these students already have,” Sulpizio said...
July 29, 2026
Ashoka Students Bring Global Perspectives to Mountaintop Summer Program
Three students from Ashoka University in Sonipat, Haryana, India, near New Delhi, are in Bethlehem this year for Lehigh University’s Mountaintop Summer Experience through the Office of Creative Inquiry. Adya Reddy, Anam Ahamed and Samip Dahal are working with Lehigh faculty mentors and students on impact-focused projects ranging from adolescent psychology to digital learning, technology to the new student experience. For the past five years, Ashoka students have brought perspectives from one of India’s leading...
July 6, 2026
Swello Team Advances New Low-Cost Design for Dysphagia Monitoring in Kazakhstan
For people with dysphagia, a sip of water or a bite of food can carry risks most people never think about. The swallowing disorder, often associated with stroke, neurological conditions, or age, can make eating and drinking difficult and create a need for ongoing monitoring and care. Swello, a Global Social Impact Fellowship project at Lehigh University, is working to improve dysphagia care in Kazakhstan through a new design rooted in local resources and clinical...
July 2, 2026
2026 GSIF Kazakhstan Fieldwork Advances Research, Partnerships and Social Impact
Six Global Social Impact Fellowship teams, plus one Sustainable Futures Fellowship team, traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan from May 16–30 to advance projects focused on a wide range of social sectors including education, health, sustainability, research capacity and technology-driven social impact. With 30 students and four faculty mentors, Khanjan Mehta, Dhruv Seshadri, Steven McIntosh and Joseph Menicucci, this year’s Kazakhstan fieldwork represented the largest single travel group in the history of Lehigh’s Global Social Impact Fellowship...
June 29, 2026
Mindful Steps Launches Online Platform to Help Lehigh Community Find Restorative Walking Routes
Finding time to step away during a busy day can be difficult. On Lehigh’s hilly, sprawling campus, even a short walk can feel easier to skip than to plan. A Campus Social Impact Fellowship project is helping make that choice simpler. Mindful Steps into the Forest recently launched “Mindful Steps,” an online platform ( https://forestmood-walking.vercel.app/) that helps students, faculty and staff find safe, accessible, and healthy walking routes across Lehigh’s large, sprawling campus. The platform...
June 23, 2026
Lehigh Teams Explore the Human Side of Innovation in the Bay Area
At the center of today’s technology transformations are human questions about work, access, well-being and opportunity. This summer, 18 Lehigh University Impact Fellows traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area for two weeks to explore those questions through their Silicon Valley Social Impact Fellowship fieldwork. The five projects, Bay Area Food Connect, The Human Edge, Harmony in the Hustle, Fostering New Futures, and The Ethics of the New AI Workforce, worked with partners across the...
June 15, 2026
Lehigh’s GSIF Fellows Invent Wearable Device to Track Parkinson’s Tremors
For patients with Parkinson’s disease, tremors can change throughout the day. A short visit with a clinician may capture only a small part of what a patient experiences, leaving doctors to rely on patient recollection, brief physical tests and subjective reports when making decisions about medication and care. TremorTrack, a Global Social Impact Fellowship project at Lehigh University mentored by Dhruv R. Seshadri, assistant professor of bioengineering, is developing a low-cost wearable device and digital...
June 9, 2026
HDSE Leadership Intensive Expands to Kazakhstan Through Lehigh-AlmaU Partnership
Lehigh University and Almaty Management University partnered to host the Humanitarian Design and Social Enterprise (HDSE) Leadership Intensive in Almaty, Kazakhstan, bringing together students, faculty and emerging changemakers for an immersive, hands-on experience in entrepreneurial leadership, innovation and social impact. The program took place in May 2026 in two cohorts. The first cohort convened from May 19–23, followed by a second cohort from May 25–29. Collectively, the cohorts brought together 53 undergraduate and graduate students...
May 12, 2026
Lehigh Students Build Portable Space for Political Dialogue
Beyond Words, A Campus Social Impact Fellowship team is using art, design and portable furniture to create new spaces for dialogue across political differences. Political dialogue on a college campus does not always have to start with a microphone, a debate stage or a formal discussion. Through Beyond Words: Making Space for Political Dialogue, a Campus Social Impact Fellowship project which started in January 2026, Lehigh students and faculty are exploring how art, architecture, civic...
May 5, 2026
What are Impact Fellows most excited about for 2026 fieldwork?
Creative Inquiry hosted its 2026 Fieldwork Prep Retreat this past Sunday, bringing Impact Fellows together as they prepare to advance real-world projects and create meaningful impact this summer. This summer, 115 Impact Fellows will conduct fieldwork across five locations: Sierra Leone, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, India and Silicon Valley. They will work alongside community partners, faculty mentors and peers to advance impact-focused projects across global health, sustainability, education, technology and social innovation. Before they head into...