News

This summer, over 85 Lehigh students and faculty will be traveling across five different locations (Kuppam, India; Almaty, Kazakhstan; San Francisco, California; Manila, the Philippines; and Makeni, Sierra Leone) to conduct project-related fieldwork as a critical piece of being a Lehigh University Social Impact Fellow. Last Saturday, Building C on Lehigh’s Mountaintop Campus was alive with energy and excitement as these soon-to-be global travelers gathered for an immersive, 7-hour preparatory retreat. 

From AI-enhanced health care in Sierra Leone, to materials upcycling in Manila, to nutritional food access in California, and many other impact-focused projects, students and their faculty mentors will be building community partnerships and validating potential solutions to complex global challenges. These intense fieldwork experiences only last 2-3 weeks, but their outcomes will last a lifetime. Good luck to all the IF travelers!

Special thanks to the faculty-staff travel leaders and project mentors who joined the retreat: Brett Ludwig, Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs, Michael Kramp, professor of English, Saif Mir, assistant professor of decision and technology analytics, and Nicholas Rockwell , visiting research scientist of Materials Science and Engineering.