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Engaging students in teaching and learning science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is critically important in an era of social and economic change (such as the graying workforce in the US) and an increased need for skilled workers, which has led to a “radical opening” to work collectively to engage students and help them grow into leaders (Myers & Berkowicz, 2015, p. 7). As Hall et al. (2020) noted, high-quality mentoring that focuses on clear expectations, building a sense of community, one-to-one mentoring, and acquisition of mentoring skills can result in a salient experience for both the students and faculty involved. As a collaborative team spanning both the STEM sciences and educational teaching and leadership domains, we share experiences of navigating a pandemic, creating new pathways for collaboration, and seeking to engage students at both the university undergraduate as well as K-8 levels. In this article, we provide insights on both the design of the collaborative effort as well as how we benefited from the “radical opening” that presented itself in the form of a funded National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant called “An interdisciplinary approach to the marine sciences for first-year students”. Our project and related findings are particularly relevant to both the STEM and the educational fields because they offer a pathway to better engaging learners – and their supporting faculty – at both the university and school settings. We offer multiple perspectives and strategies across institutions and disciplines in the context of historical change and challenge.