The LAUNCH Program is an instructional series that enables students to maximize their WSU experience by:
- Advancing personal growth through enhanced self-awareness and understanding
- Supporting psychological well-being using evidence-based strategies
- Facilitating engagement in intentionally selected experiential learning opportunities
Using interactive exercises, curated resources, and reflection prompts, LAUNCH helps students identify their existing strengths, visualize their ideal future, and develop goal plans for working toward their personal and professional aspirations. Throughout this process, the program emphasizes the transformative power of experiential learning opportunities and the role such experiences can play in elevating the undergraduate experience. Students learn how to incorporate experiential learning into their undergraduate journey in ways that support their unique assets, interests, and ambitions.
LAUNCH ran on the WSU Pullman campus between 2016 and 2024. The program operated in partnership with various undergraduate courses and student success groups (i.e., TRIO, Team Mentoring Program). During that time, LAUNCH helped more than 10,000 students think deeply about their academic journey and connect with meaningful learning opportunities. Pre/post assessments of the program demonstrated its ability to enhance students’ personal growth and students who completed the entire program were more likely to be retained at WSU relative to those who did not.
This User Guide introduces you to the core elements of the LAUNCH program. It includes a brief introduction to experiential learning, an overview of the LAUNCH framework, and access to instructional modules for each of the program’s key learning components. Each module includes all of the materials needed to facilitate the activities/assignments associated with that learning component.
Originally designed as a unified series, the LAUNCH modules can be used together as a cohesive training program to advance students’ personal development and engagement in experiential learning across several sessions. Alternatively, individual components could be used alone, or combined in novel arrangements, to support students’ development in select areas (e.g., identification of signature strengths; goal setting; personal values assessment). Instructors seeking to enhance their student’s well-being, career and self-development, or engagement in experiential learning in the context of their own course(s) could use LAUNCH materials as a possible starting point and then modify various exercises or assignments in ways that best fit their specific learning goals and course contexts.
LAUNCH Modules
- Module 1: Strengths Assessment & Transferable Skills
- Module 2: Future Best Self & Goal Setting
- Module 3: Experiential Learning & Goal Planning
- Module 4: Values Assessment & Integration