AccelerateX

Intense, Interdisciplinary, Immersive, In-Person, Inclusive, Inspiring experiences that fast track students into future making.

Apply to AccelerateX Design Labs Maker Bootcamp

AccelerateX Programs

Design Labs Maker Bootcamp

The application is open for the August 2024 incoming first-year students' program. We offer an immersive experience in various “making” technologies. You’ll engage in hands-on activities like manual sheet metal bending, CNC milling, laser cutting, and using computer-aided design tools. Join us Monday to Friday for this exciting accelerator and become a master maker!

Sustainable Happiness Institute

You’ll explore practical actions towards creating alternative happy futures. This program helps you find your ikigai—the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Join us Monday to Friday to develop your awareness and drive sustainable change. Happiness is contagious, and it starts here!

 

 

Apply to AccelerateX

Applications will open in Fall 2024 for January 2025. Please fill out the application below to apply for either/both programs. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis but are due by December 7th.

What is AccelerateX

AccelerateX: Empowering Lehigh’s Future Makers to Discover Their Passions and Prepare for Tomorrow’s Jobs

AccelerateX is a series of intensive, interdisciplinary non-credit-bearing programs, run during the winter term, aimed at inspiring Lehigh’s Future Makers - helping students find their “why,” identify their passions, and develop foundational skill sets and mindsets they will need to prepare for their first job and for the jobs that don’t yet exist.

AccelerateX: Discover Your Core Values and Foster Connections at Lehigh

AccelerateX aims to help students pinpoint what is important to them, what their core values are, and how they can live out those passions and values in their personal and professional worlds. They will build new connections in our campus community and foster a greater sense of belonging at Lehigh.

AccelerateX: Cultivating Engagement and Imagining Happy Futures at Lehigh

AccelerateX will help students develop an engagement mindset and challenge them to imagine alternative happy futures that they can explore both personally and professionally while at Lehigh and after they graduate. Students will walk away from an AccelerateX program with a stronger understanding of how Lehigh’s high-impact opportunities will benefit them, and a clear game plan for how they will maximize their time here - both inside and beyond the classroom.

AccelerateX: Winter Programs for First-Year and Transfer Students

AccelerateX programs are targeted towards first year and transfer students, although all students are welcome to apply. As we envision Lehigh as an active 12-month university campus, AccelerateX will, in the years to come, provide ever more high-impact programming during the winter term that will help the Future Makers zoom toward success.

Why AccelerateX

Find Your "I"...

​​​​​AccelerateX programs are:

  1. Interdisciplinary
  2. Intense
  3. Immersive
  4. In-person
  5. Inclusive
  6. Inspiring!
Find Your “Why” (and When, Where, What, Who…)

When Does AccelerateX Happen?

  • In January 2024, there are two AccelerateX programs:
  • Both programs will take place all day (approximately 9am-5pm), Monday through Friday, during the dates of the program. Participants are expected to fully commit to the entirety of the program – no part-time participation allowed.

Where Does AccelerateX Happen?

  • The Maker Bootcamp will take place at Wilbur Powerhouse and on Mountaintop Campus
  • The Sustainable Happiness Institute will take place at various locations on the Asa Packer Campus with occasional sessions at Building C on the Mountaintop Campus

Why AccelerateX?

  • Because Future Makers need opportunities to innovate, pursue their curiosity, and create new things in a fearless, open atmosphere;
  • Because Future Makers need to learn ways to take theory to practice to expertise – and because challenging problems don’t take a semester break;
  • Because Future Makers need to work together, connect, and learn from themselves and from their peers.
  • Because you can do a lot in just two weeks!

Who Can Participate in AccelerateX?

  • AccelerateX programs are primarily intended for first-year and transfer students who have been at Lehigh for one semester or less, but any student is welcome to apply, even graduate students.
  • Students from all colleges, majors, and backgrounds are welcome and encouraged to participate!
  • Students who may already be planning to stay on-campus during the winter break, or those who live off-campus, are certainly eligible and encouraged to apply – however, participating students can have their on-campus housing costs completely covered (see the details below)

 How Do I Apply?

  • The application link, and further details on each AccelerateX program, can be found below. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but must be submitted by December 7th for full consideration.
 
Contact Us: 

Bill Whitney - Assistant Vice Provost for Experiential Learning Programs - wrw210@lehigh.edu

Michelle Spada - Lehigh 360 Program Manager - mcs619@lehigh.edu