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Lehigh Launch: Experiential, Place-Based Learning

Start your college career with an immersive, inquiry-based semester in the American West or Santiago, Chile 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 Santiago, Chile

Experience Chilean culture by studying in the beautiful colonial city of Santiago, nestled at the foot of the Andes Mountains.

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

Is This Right for Me?

Lehigh Launch is for the student with a curious mind, an independent spirit and outstanding leadership potential.

Apply for Lehigh Launch >

How will I grow?

  • Create "collaborative connections" with other students; work productively in teams
  • Demonstrate skills of inclusive leadership
  • Strengthen empathy and sense of responsibility for others; community engagement
  • Learn to address disagreements productively, honoring multiple perspectives and competing points of view

  • Demonstrate "creative curiosity," taking the initiative to explore issues and ideas
  • Embrace contradictions and complex problems, recognizing one's own biases and assumptions
  • Engage in reflection and self-assessment
  • Develop capacity to observe closely, with sustained attention

  • Learn and apply key concepts within a discipline of study
  • Use investigative and analytical methods appropriate to a discipline
  • Collect and synthesize information or data

  • Understand contexts and purposes for writing, including the conventions of different academic disciplines
  • Produce texts that analyze issues and ideas in clear, well-organized, readable documents
  • Engage in effective oral and multimodal communication, using a variety of media to reach multiple audiences

Contact Us

Have a question? We have an answer. And if you can't find what you're looking for in our Frequently Asked Questions, reach out for a personal conversation.

General Questions: lehighlaunch@lehigh.edu
American West-specific Questions: launchwest@lehigh.edu
Chile-specific Questions: launchabroad@lehigh.edu

Two students at a picnic table in the woods

Semester in the American West

Students spend part of their stay in Wyoming at the Mountain Springs Ranch in the foothills of the Wind River Range of the Rockies.

Three students hiking through a river

Semester in the American West

Two to three weeks of backpacking through the Wind River Range with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).

Coastline in Chiloe Island

Semester in Santiago, Chile

Chiloé Island in southern Chile is home to pastoral landscapes and the blue whales that gather on its northwest coast. 

Torres del Paine National Park

Semester in Santiago, Chile

Torres del Paine National Park, in Chile’s Patagonia region, boasts scenic glaciers, lakes, mountains and the three iconic granite peaks of Paine Massif.

A building in Santiago, Chile

Semester in Santiago, Chile

Santiago’s city center is a mixture of historical colonial architecture and modern day commercial structures.

Two students at Gannett Peak in Wyoming

Semester in the American West

Ben Bentz '24 (left) and Christopher Jong '24 reached the summit of Gannett Peak in Wyoming.

Close up of a person pointing at a map

Semester in the American West

Wilderness and wayfinding skills will be part of the curriculum.

Santiago Center in Chile

Semester in Santiago, Chile

IES’s Santiago Center provides the perfect space for students to gather for food, fun and studies.