Learning That Comes alive Beyond the Classroom

Bill Whitney, Assistant Vice Provost for Experiential Learning Programs, Lehigh University

Whitney’s journey in education is rooted in the arts and humanities. A classically trained pianist since the age of three, he developed early as both a practitioner and scholar of music and theatre. Guided by a mentor during his undergraduate years, Whitney discovered the power of the arts to foster healing, elevate underheard voices and bring communities together—an experience that shaped his commitment to experiential learning and community impact.

A Journey toward Experiential Learning

The true meaning of experiential education became apparent. I realized that while you can spend many hours refining your skills and knowledge in any field, none of it breathes until it is practiced and applied in the world.

Fast forward to my career in higher education, which has taken me to several great universities as a graduate student, adjunct professor, staff member and administrator (and I have long since expanded my portfolio beyond the performing arts). At each institution, I have seen the same pattern. A passionate student studies a discipline, excels in the classroom and then encounters real-world practice. When their field is applied under meaningful conditions with real communities at stake, their identity, agency and confidence expand dramatically. Their understanding of the field grows beyond its academic boundaries. That is the power of experiential education.

How Students Are Using AI for Social Innovation

Now we live in a world where AI is resetting the terms of educational engagement. Since the early days when ChatGPT went public, the program I have co-led and managed since 2018, the Lehigh University Impact Fellowship, has embraced AI’s potential to help illuminate the questions that move projects forward when there are no clear answers. At first, we encouraged students to use AI to expand their knowledge by identifying recent studies, whether in maternal health in West Africa or plastics upcycling in Southeast Asia. Students also used it to quickly summarize best practices around issues like food insecurity in California or social-emotional learning in the Lehigh Valley and to explore prototypes that could inspire entirely new innovations.

“we encouraged students to use AI to expand their knowledge by identifying recent studies, whether in maternal health in West Africa or plastics upcycling in Southeast Asia.”

As AI has evolved, a word that barely captures the speed and complexity of the moment, undergraduate students have evolved alongside it and I now see more backlash than embrace. A recent informal survey of nearly 200 students participating in the Impact Fellowships, across 52 open-ended social enterprise project teams, showed that a significant number resent the ubiquity of AI and are resisting its broad adoption. Their objections range from ethical concerns, including environmental impact, cognitive decline and cheating, to practical worries about a shrinking job market, faculty restrictions and lack of skills. What this revealed to me was a deep misunderstanding rooted in mistrust of the technology industry.

In this environment, I question the value of the common analogy comparing AI to a calculator. While it may work historically, like comparisons to the printing press or the personal computer, it misses something important. I prefer to think of AI as a musical instrument. The output depends on the skill of the player and the results can range from brilliance to mediocrity. The instrument does not play itself, at least not yet.

Another conclusion that fascinates me, supported by growing anecdotal evidence, is that the strongest resistance to AI often comes from students of more privileged backgrounds and majority identities who are already positioned to succeed within traditional higher education systems. In contrast, greater embrace is coming from international students, minority-identity students and first-generation students who see AI as a way to expand their skills and reshape the system. This reflects technology’s egalitarian promise, never fully utopian but still meaningful.

The Challenges of Expanding Experiential Opportunities

The number one challenge, which needs no special expertise to recognize, is funding. At my institution, several of us have spent years trying to understand the systemic funding needs that allow students to participate in high-impact experiential opportunities. We have also been working to create a more accessible platform where students can identify and apply for funding without needing to “pass the hat” through multiple conversations with faculty and departmental or college administrators.

This challenge is technological, which has proven more complex than expected and administrative. There is no single solution, though we have piloted several small initiatives to see what works. Ultimately, the deeper challenge is cultural, shifting from prioritizing exam success to valuing applied learning, societal impact and the advancement of knowledge as core outcomes of education.

Connecting Students to Hands-On Learning through Technology

Through the Lehigh360 initiative, we have found that a combination of online platforms and in-person advising, the physical space with the virtual space, is the best way to serve all students and steer them toward high-impact programs and opportunities. The online platform, though, becomes the front door of this effort, allowing students to explore, engage and even apply for these opportunities on their own time. The physical, in-person advising process then becomes a backstop where questions can be answered and deeper conversations can be had.

Lehigh360 is in the midst of creating an AI-assisted chatbot and collecting initial data on its use so we can improve its capabilities. I’m excited to see where this leads us and, as AI capabilities continue to improve, how we can utilize this technology to have the most effective and efficient conversations that connect students with their passions, their talents and their dreams.

Modernizing Experiential Learning through Innovation

Everywhere I go, whether to conferences or classrooms, the refrain about higher education’s decentralization is constant and it also happens to be true. If we are to transform higher ed’s value proposition to include and even require, experiential learning and high-impact opportunities, we must fully include technology in the process.

There is a disconnect between students and families who enter higher ed focused on completing the curriculum and earning the degree credential, employers who say early-career professionals lack real-world experience and human skills and faculty and staff who sometimes view experiential learning as an add-on. Bridging these perspectives means rethinking technology not as a transactional tool, but as a critical partner that helps students connect their passions with experiences that prepare them for the next century.

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