Lehigh Launch: Experiential, Place-Based Learning
Start your college career with an immersive, inquiry-based semester in the American West or Ecuador and learn from your location, your professors, your peers—and yourself.
Because life isn’t divided into majors. And not all classrooms have walls.
Lehigh Launch is an experiential, integrative learning experience for intellectually curious and independent students. This unique first-semester experience is led by Lehigh faculty and staff, is open to students in any major, and costs the same as an on-campus semester (financial aid applies the same as for an on-campus semester as well). Through hands-on learning and challenging coursework in a living-learning community, students will gain new perspectives, grow as individuals and return to Lehigh with the experience and knowledge to succeed.
Program Locations
Semester in the American West: WY and NM
Spend your semester with Lehigh faculty learning about the literature, earth and environment, and peoples of Wyoming and New Mexico — while you also learn about yourself. A backpacking expedition with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) elevates the program's classroom- and field-based learning.
Semester in Ecuador: Quito, the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands
Experience Ecuadorian culture by studying in the beautiful colonial city of Quito, the Amazon rainforest and spending time on the Galapagos Islands, one of the most pristine natural laboratories in the world.
What is learning like in Lehigh Launch?
Immersive
place-based, situated in a living-learning environment
Active
experiential, inquiry-based
Integrative
concepts woven together through connective themes
Cooperative
cohort-based learning with collaborative projects and reports
