Students may register for a program beginning on May 12, 2011. Students who register for a PreLUsion program will receive a confirmation packet in July with specific program details and move-in information. Refund requests must be made in writing to fye@lehigh.edu before June 30th and a $25 processing fee will apply. No refund requests will be accepted after June 30, 2011. The registration form can be found on the Office of First Year Experience website at:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~infys/prelusion.shtml.

The $290 Urban Ops NYC registration costs include the following: all meals prior to the activation of your student’s meal plan, any costs associated with the day trip to NYC (including transportation, food, and group spending money) a t-shirt and all on campus workshops and activities. Note: The group spending money provided from the registration costs will be used by the group to navigate the city based on the guidelines provide for the excursion by the office and their group decisions. This money will not cover personal expenses or souvenirs, the cost of these items will be left to the student’s discretion and personal funds.

Your student will need to complete the following forms and return them by August 1, 2011, which can be found on the forms link on our website: LU Off Campus Waiver, LU Indemnity & Release Wavier*, Medical Information Form*, Student Biography. Please notice on all forms that if the student is under the age of 18 years during the Urban Ops NYC experience the legal parent or guardian will need to sign the forms in addition to the student’s signature.

*Students will be participating in our on campus Ropes Challenge Course run by the Office of Student Leadership Development. These two forms are required of all participants that go through the course.

Urban Ops NYC participants do not need to bring anything beyond what they would typically pack for their college experience. Participation in our Ropes Challenge Course will require all students wear closed toe shoes, preferably sneakers and non-baggy clothing. Under the forms link on the Urban Ops website you can access the “Appropriate Attire” document that more clearly defines what students should wear to actively engage in the Ropes Challenge Course experience.

Our trip is specifically designed to help your student begin their time at Lehigh by taking an in-depth look at how groups develop and the role they take in those groups. This will be particularly beneficial as first year students are inundated with a variety of involvement options the moment they arrive on campus. In addition, our experience will provide your student with various opportunities to practice navigating group situations and how to recognize and work effectively with different personality styles that emerge in those situations. Finally, they will get to meet and become friends with a diverse peer group that reaches across campus residence halls, orientation groups and academic colleges.

All PreLUsion programs are designed to jump-start the college experience with students who share similar interests. The benefit to participating in a smaller PreLUsion experience like Urban Ops NYC is that students will have the opportunity to form close and intimate bonds with fellow first year students, highly engaged and involved upper class students, young vibrant NYC alumni and active, supportive and well connected older alumni and prominent career professionals. In addition, the focus of the Urban Ops NYC program is to build our participants’ abilities and skills when it comes to adjusting to and working effectively in groups and teams. Our participants will come out with a great advantage and ready to adjust to orientation groups, residence hall floors and even class projects, something that is unique to our program’s smaller participant design.

Students will be briefed about the day, provided breakfast and driven by their upperclassmen student leader along with their group of 5 students into NYC in a University van. During the day experience groups, accompanied by their upperclassmen student leader, will make a series of decisions similar to a typical sightseeing family trip. One task of the day will be to meet a University representative for lunch and discussion and other tasks will include tours of various educational places of interest throughout Manhattan, accompanied by a Lehigh University alumnus. All program participants, alumni participants, University representatives, and Program Coordinators will meet for dinner and then all students will be driven back to Lehigh by their upperclassmen student leaders. In addition, the University Program Coordinators will be in Manhattan all day and within cell phone reach of all participants via upperclassmen student leaders.