Andy Fugh ’21
Recipient of the Marcella S. & Samuel Geltman Scholarship
A Lehigh education is distinguished by the richness and breadth of its opportunities for experiential learning, its interdisciplinarity, and its truly global reach. Andy Fugh ’21 of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has already experienced firsthand how his skills as a mechanical engineer can tackle the world’s biggest challenges and make tangible local impact.
As a Global Social Impact fellow — a program offered through the Center for Creative Inquiry on the Mountaintop campus — Andy’s initiative was given the space to thrive on a project to address plastic waste and recycling. Some days were spent mapping ecosystems for recycling plastics; other days, he developed machinery prototypes or picked up plastic from Bethlehem’s county recycling center for sampling and prototype research.
And then, Andy took all that knowledge and planning and put it into practice on a fellowship trip to the Philippines. Not only did the project create plastic recycling machines and facilities, it strove to empower local women as employees with a steady income and increased quality of life.
“What else is there to do but make a difference?”
At Lehigh, tomorrow’s leaders are encouraged to engage with real-world challenges and begin creating solutions today. Tackling plastic waste has “a lot of room for more people to innovate,” says Andy, and he’s grateful that he gets to be one of those people.
Scholarship and financial aid make all those opportunities possible; without generous support from the Marcella S. & Samuel Geltman Scholarship, Andy wouldn’t necessarily be at Lehigh. Meeting his donors, hearing why they donate and why they want to help students, puts it all in perspective. “It’s everyone’s goal to leave their mark on the world,” says Andy. “What else is there to do but make a difference?”
Photo Gallery: Andy’s Story
