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Challenge or problem-based learning help students develop deeper content understanding and enhanced STEM skillsets and provide opportunities for learning across multiple contexts. Educational interventions that include active learning, mentoring, and role modeling are particularly important in recruiting and retaining female and minority students in STEM. With this framework in mind, we implemented the Vertically-Integrated Projects (VIP) model at a public urban research university in the 2022-2023 academic year with the goal of helping participating students increase engineering and STEM identity and other psychosocial outcomes. This paper reports the results from the first year of our VIP program. At the beginning and end of the academic year, participants completed measures of engineering identity; engineering self-efficacy; engineering mindset; intention to remain in the engineering major; intention to have a career in engineering; and STEM professional identity. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks (N=10) tests showed no statistically significant differences on any of these measures. Participants also responded to 20 items assessing their perceptions of their level of knowledge and skills in a variety of areas relevant to their experience in the VIP program. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests (N=10) revealed some statistically significant differences between pre- and post-test. Specifically, students tended to see themselves as having greater knowledge or skills in planning a long-term project, communicating technical concepts and designs to others, designing systems, components, or processes to meet practical or applied needs, understanding computer hardware and systems, working on a multidisciplinary team, and making ethical decisions in engineering/research. Finally, at the end of the Spring semester, participants rated the extent to which they perceived the VIP program helped them to develop their skills on the same 20 items. Most participants believed the VIP program helped them to develop each skill either somewhat or a great deal. Overall, while participation in the VIP program did not influence student engineering identity, self-efficacy, mindset, or major/career intentions, it was associated with increased self-perceived abilities on six specific skills. Additionally, most participants agreed that the VIP program helped them develop 20 skills at least “somewhat.” 

Underproduction, low retention, and lack of diversity in STEM disciplines, especially engineering, are significant challenges nationally, but are particularly acute in regions, both urban and rural, where educational access is limited. Leveraging our institutional location at a public urban research university in a city marked by its connection to its rural surroundings, we seek to address these challenges by implementing the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) model at our university with the support of an NSF IUSE grant. The VIP model is based on active learning and enables tiered mentoring from students at all academic years, thereby providing the opportunity of role modeling from upper-level undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty. In addition, programs based on the VIP model are accessible to all students (not just high performing students) and provide a meaningful networking environment. We use our implementation of the VIP model to foster STEM identity growth and a sense of belonging, while increasing and celebrating diversity in engineering and other STEM disciplines. Our VIP program leverages best practices from the well-established VIP model and adapts it to address unique aspects of our university’s community and interests. Specifically, the program includes freshmen and will also serve as a recruitment tool for local community college students. It employs a tiered mentoring approach and activities that prepare students for research and foster networking. The long-term goal of the VIP experience is to create a research culture and community in engineering and eventually across STEM disciplines that is inclusive and supportive of students from diverse backgrounds. An additional focus is to showcase the value of diversity in research and innovation through the program. Both the research culture and increased acknowledgement of the value of diversity are designed to enhance students’ STEM identity, which is important for retention in the major and career. The purpose of this paper is to report on the planning and launch of our VIP program in Fall 2022, focusing on the PIs’ experiences implementing the program and on our first cohort’s (N = 12; 7 women; 4 Black/African American; 2 Hispanic) experiences participating in the program during their first semester. Specifically, this paper will describe the challenges and opportunities of implementing the VIP program and how the VIP model has been adapted to align with unique aspects of our institution and student body. We will also report preliminary analyses of student journal data collected from the first cohort throughout the Fall semester, where students described their initial expectations/hopes and concerns for the semester; their activities and emotional responses during the semester; and finally, their reflections on their experiences, positive or negative, throughout the semester. The paper will conclude by offering lessons learned from the first year of this project as well as directions for moving forward.