2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In Fall 2022, the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) learning model was launched at University of X (UofX), a public urban research university in the southeastern United States. Supported by an IUSE grant, this program is now in its third year, with 6 teams comprising 29 undergraduate participants. The VIP model involves active learning on faculty-led, team-based projects. Team members include first-year students through graduate students with one to three or more semesters of participating in VIP. The VIP model enables tiered mentoring, from faculty to graduate students, graduate students to undergraduates, and more senior to newer students [1]. The goals of UofX’s VIP program are to: (1) help build a more inclusive research culture; and (2) help students build STEM identity, as well as self-efficacy, mindset, and intentions to stay in engineering. The first goal was based on research about the positive impact of active learning and mentoring for recruiting and retaining women and other historically excluded groups in STEM [2]. The second goal builds on previous work on mentoring and community building on STEM Identity, while extending that work to related variables [3, 4]. The purpose of this paper is to report on the evaluation of the VIP program at UofX after two years.

This paper comprises three parts. In the first, we will discuss the challenges and opportunities in implementing the VIP model at the UofX from the perspective of the PIs. This section will focus on issues involving recruiting faculty mentors and recruiting and retaining diverse undergraduates into the VIP program. In the second, we will report results from focus groups conducted in the second year of the program with undergraduates, graduate student mentors, and faculty team leaders. This section will focus on motivations for joining VIP, perceived strengths and weaknesses of the program, and suggestions for improving the program. In the third, we will summarize our research findings to date and discuss issues related to conducting research in this context and how we have adapted some of our research strategies in response to certain challenges. We conclude with lessons learned as well as directions for moving forward.

References

[1] “The VIP model.” VIP Consortium. https://www.vip-consortium.org/content/vip-model (accessed Jan. 26, 2024).
[2] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Opening Doors, Washington D.C., USA: The National Academies Press, 2020.
[3] S. Ivey and S. Parish, "Cultivating STEM Identity through the Peer Mentoring Relationship," in Navigating the Peer Mentoring Relationship: A Handbook for Women and Other Underrepresented Populations in STEM, K. Wade-James, A. Rockinson-Szapkiw, J. Wendt, Dubuque, IA, USA: Kendall Hunt, 2020, p. 316.
[4] C. O. Stewart, J. T. Campbell, T. Chase, M. Darbeheshti, K. Goodman, S. Hashemikamangar, M. Howland Cummings, S. S. Ivey, D. J. Russomanno & G. E. Simon, “Communicating Identity in the Urban STEM Collaboratory: Toward a Communication Theory of STEM identities,” International Journal of Science Education, Part B, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 345-361, Oct. 2023, doi: 10.1080/21548455.2023.2179380.