Lehigh University is taking its Impact Fellowship program to the next level—transforming students from problem-solvers into global entrepreneurial leaders who create more leaders. The new Sustainable Futures Fellowship, launching in January 2026, empowers graduates of the Impact Fellowships to become teachers, mentors, and catalysts for change. Through immersive global experiences, fellows will guide peers around the world in designing their own social innovation ventures—cultivating a generation of changemakers who multiply impact, leadership, and learning across borders.
The Impact Fellowship program builds students who are resilient, collaborative, and creative problem-solvers. After two semesters advancing ambitious, interdisciplinary ventures, many students are eager for the next step in their journey. How can they grow further—as leaders who not only act, but also inspire others to act?
To answer that question, the Office of Creative Inquiry joined forces with the Iacocca Institute, merging two of Lehigh’s strongest traditions: impact through innovation and leadership through global engagement. This collaboration combines Creative Inquiry’s expertise in hands-on, impact-driven learning and research with the Iacocca Institute’s deep experience in cultivating global leadership and cross-cultural collaboration. Together, they created one of Lehigh’s newest signature programs—the Sustainable Futures Fellowship, launching its first cohort in January 2026.
Sustainable Futures Fellows will be students who have successfully completed the Impact Fellowship program and are ready for the next challenge—moving from doing to leading, and from leading to empowering others. Built on the foundation of a previous Impact Fellowship initiative, the HDSE (Humanitarian Design and Social Entrepreneurship) Academy, the program integrates the immersive global leadership opportunities developed over many years at the Iacocca Institute with the hands-on, project-centric, impact focus of Creative Inquiry.
“The Sustainable Futures Fellowship exemplifies the many ways in which Lehigh develops globally minded leaders who learn through collaboration and action,” said Cheryl Matherly, vice president and vice provost for International Affairs. “By engaging students directly with communities around the world, we prepare them to lead with cultural understanding, ethical awareness, and a commitment to sustainable impact.”
The program will give 16 Lehigh students the opportunity to design and deliver week-long, in person leadership intensives for highly self-selected student groups in four countries, including India, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, and Brazil, working alongside a diverse range of academic and nonprofit partners. SF Fellows will also create virtual academies, extending these learning experiences to many more students beyond the in person programs. These initiatives are designed to guide students worldwide in framing and implementing their own social entrepreneurship ventures, multiplying impact, cultivating global leaders, and building collaborative communities, one student and one project at a time.
Scott Koerwer, Executive Director of the Iacocca Institute, says that this collaboration will provide a unique opportunity for Lehigh students to scale up global leadership skills.
“As the students in this fellowship program will discover, you learn most when you teach others, and you become a more effective and confident leader when you lead others. At the Iacocca Institute, we emphasize learning and leading within diverse global communities, and we are eager to collaborate with the Office of Creative Inquiry on the Sustainable Futures Fellowship, and contribute our knowledge and globally-minded approach with theirs.”
In 2025, a pilot of sorts was conducted with four accomplished Impact Fellows: Megan Thomas ‘27, molecular & cellular biology major, Callie Higgins ‘27, biostatistics and health data science, Juliana Magarelli ‘27, bioengineering, Gabriela Quinteros ‘27, bioengineering. This dynamic team created the first HDSE Virtual Academy, delivered to over 200 college students in India, and in June, they traveled to the Agastya International Foundation’s campus in Kuppam, India, to deliver a week-long intensive program to 45 of their peer undergraduates from across the subcontinent, delivering the fundamentals of design thinking for social entrepreneurship and shepherding them through team-based project ideation and framing for real-world impact.
Megan Thomas said that this experience was transformative in many ways: “At a certain point, we stopped asking questions and just trusted our knowledge and our experience. When that happened, we saw the value of leading and teaching collaboratively, and built meaningful relationships with our fellow students from India.”
Khanjan Mehta, vice provost for Creative Inquiry, says the Sustainable Futures Fellowship will deepen students’ understanding of education, leadership, and co-creation.
“When we talk about Future Makers at Lehigh, we’re not only talking about our own students,” he said. “As a global university, we are equally committed to developing Future Makers around the world. To solve the problems of today, we must collectively build the capacity of the next generation—empowering young people everywhere with the tools, confidence, and creativity to co-create a better future. Through the Impact Fellowships, students learn what it means to be biased toward action. As Sustainable Futures Fellows, they will learn what it means to inspire others to do the same.”
Applications for the Sustainable Futures Fellowship are open through early November for students who have completed the Impact Fellowships in 2025 or earlier. Students who are interested in joining the Impact Fellowship program for 2026 can also apply through November 2nd, and can learn more at https://go.lehigh.edu/impactfellowships.