Lehigh University has received a gift of $10 million for a renovation within the historic Packard Laboratory to create a new space for First-Year Rossin Engineering (FYRE), an innovative curriculum for first-year students that empowers them to begin building and engineering on day one. This gift builds on community excitement behind GO Beyond: The Campaign for Future Makers, a fundraising campaign to raise $1.25 billion to fuel Lehigh’s strategy, Inspiring the Future Makers.
The gift from David Jackson ’67, Patricia Jackson, Suzanne Jackson, and the Suzanne and David Jackson Foundation will establish the Jackson Laboratory as the home of FYRE, Lehigh’s ambitious new approach to engineering education. Unlike a traditional course of study in which students focus primarily on math, science, and engineering theory courses in the first year, FYRE students are immediately introduced to hands-on learning, research, and capstone projects to better equip them for real-world engineering challenges like developing energy storage solutions or advancing sustainable infrastructure.
"The Jackson Laboratory will solidify Lehigh as a leader in cultivating critical thinkers and doers, engineers who are best prepared to create, to lead, and to succeed."
- President Joseph Helble '82
The Jackson Laboratory will provide essential space to expand FYRE. Currently a pilot program with 34 students, FYRE will grow so that by 2028, all first-year engineers in Lehigh’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science will go through the program. Rooted in Lehigh’s commitment to experiential, interdisciplinary learning and preparing graduates with practical skills, FYRE prepares students to meet the evolving demands of today’s workplace. Throughout the program, they tackle authentic engineering challenges with broad societal relevance.
Jackson, a chemical engineering graduate, sees the potential for FYRE to offer students the foundational knowledge, experiences, and mindsets needed to succeed as engineers in the 21st century. His family’s latest gift builds on their early interest in supporting experiential learning in the Rossin College.
“As president and as an engineering alumnus, I am excited and deeply grateful to work alongside Dave, his wife, Pat, Suzanne, and their foundation to establish a home for FYRE in Packard,” says Joseph Helble ’82. “The Jackson Laboratory will solidify Lehigh as a leader in cultivating critical thinkers and doers, engineers who are best prepared to create, to lead, and to succeed.”
The Jackson Laboratory will be an open-concept studio where teams of students can huddle over a dismantled engine or test prototypes of water filtration systems. This visible and accessible space will complement an environment equipped with the technologies students need to engage in solving real-world problems. The laboratory will also be supported by smaller, adjoining rooms designed to support faculty mentoring and group presentations, encouraging students to hone their leadership and communication skills.
“FYRE is a complete revamping of what we’ve traditionally done in engineering education both at Lehigh and as a discipline,” says Steve DeWeerth, the Lew and Sherry Hay Dean of Engineering. “The Jackson Laboratory will not only provide a physical space for FYRE students to do engineering, it will also be the place where the wider Lehigh community sees the power of Lehigh Engineering in action. The Rossin College, its faculty, and the FYRE team express their gratitude for what this incredible gift will mean for the program’s impact.”
“The Jackson Laboratory and the growth of FYRE will be as consequential to Lehigh engineering as the moment Packard opened in 1929,” says Provost Nathan Urban. “This lab will be where students do not just study engineering, it will be where they become engineers. Because of Dave, Pat, and Suzanne, FYRE — and Lehigh — will be best positioned to deliver the modern, technologically responsive engineering education that employers are looking for.”
“The Jacksons’ gift comes at a moment of great momentum for Lehigh, its strategy, and, importantly, the GO Beyond Campaign,” says Carol Packard, vice president for development and alumni relations. “FYRE and the future Jackson Laboratory in Packard build on that momentum and elevate the many ways students experience interdisciplinary programs across the institution, an educational approach that Lehigh is known for. We are lucky to have people like Dave, Pat, and Suzanne in our community.”
The Power of Building
For the Jacksons, their gift and the Jackson Laboratory underscore the power of creative problem-solving when combined with Lehigh’s focus on a rigorous and pragmatic education. In FYRE, the Jacksons see a way for students to complement their digital proficiency by leaning more into their innate creativity and intuition.
“It’s one thing to learn a calculus theorem, memorize it, and regurgitate it for a quiz,” Dave Jackson says. “It’s something else altogether to make something or fix something that’s broken.”
It requires critical, creative thinking, skills that he believes are not often emphasized enough with young engineers.
A New Jersey native and son of an engineer, Jackson grew up feeling that engineering was a natural fit. In his youth, he spent time visiting the Edison Museum — experiences that fostered his lifelong commitment to the Edisonian way of innovating.
“Edison was criticized because he wasn’t theoretical enough,” Jackson says, “but he tried over and over and found something that worked.”
Those storied 10,000 attempts at a lightbulb were valuable because they instilled the resilience to keep going.
“I think that way of thinking is analogous to FYRE’s goals,” Jackson adds. “Students are going to get their hands dirty and learn about it firsthand.”
One of the appeals of FYRE for the Jacksons is its emphasis on the value of accepting and using failure to develop resilience. It is incredibly important to the Jacksons that Lehigh cultivates students “who are willing to fail and risk within reason. Because you can't succeed without failure,” says Pat Jackson. She’s often said that Lehigh helped give Dave Jackson the experiences and the courage to leave the engineering field to pursue something he truly enjoyed.
Five years after graduating from Lehigh, Jackson found himself working for General Electric in the chemical and plastics division in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
“My window looked right at these guys who were preparing the trenches to pour concrete,” he remembers. “It was early spring and it was muddy. I said to myself, ‘You know, I'd rather be out there with this guy in the mud,’” he chuckles.
Pat Jackson smiles and adds, “It was his ‘ah-ha’ moment.”
A year or so after that rainy and muddy day, Dave Jackson started Jackson Homes, a residential development and home building company. Jackson says his engineering education at Lehigh provided him with the mindset and the experiences to take risks and build a successful career.
Lehigh “helped me grow quite a bit, and I credit that to Lehigh and its focus on a rigorous, applied education,” he says.
Through this transformational philanthropic investment, the Jackson family empowers every FYRE student to discover the value of a diverse engineering toolkit built by solving complex engineering challenges.
