Project Activities
There are multiple components within Project VITAL that are being carried out through campus channels of faculty and staff. Learn about each activity below.
Focus Mentorship
The Focus Mentoring program will pair new Hispanic students and low-income students with faculty and staff mentors to support students sense of belonging. The mission of the program will be to provide targeted coaching to support students’ adjustment to University life as valued members of the community, with a clear sense of identity and purpose. Focus mentors and mentees will engage in approximately eight hours of structured activities and 10 hours of unstructured activities each semester.
Internship Stipend
Project VITAL is excited to offer stipends for undergraduate students pursuing unpaid or underpaid internships beginning in the summer of 2024. Internships must start no earlier than May 11, 2024 and end no later than August 27, 2024. This semester-long program provides stipends to students who secure either on-campus or external internships. While preference will be given to students in the VITAL Focus Mentorship Program, participation will not be limited exclusively to these students.
Additionally, priority will be given to Latinx and/or low-income students as these are the target populations of the VITAL grant. The program will be open to students pursuing internships related to their future careers or current fields of study, ensuring that the internships are aligned with their academic and professional goals.
Learn more about our Internship Stipend
Faculty Learning Circles
Faculty Learning Circles (FLCs) help train faculty in advising and mentoring programs, grounded in DEIJ principles, that lead to discernment of vocation and purpose. The goals of the FLCs are threefold: 1) develop each faculty member’s mentoring capacity; 2) engender a collaborative learning culture to support student mentoring; and 3) produce departmental mentoring plans.
Strong mentoring plans will address strategies to facilitate student research, sponsor internship opportunities, oversee capstone projects, serve on thesis committees, and support student presentations at professional conferences.
Learn more about Faculty Learning Circles
Supervising Student Workers
The goal of student supervisor training is to empower supervisors to work more actively with students in exploring career interests, develop competencies, and apply lessons from academic coursework in a supervised, professional setting. Further, student supervisors will build their capacity to work with students from manifold backgrounds and experiences, demonstrating the cultural dexterity to increase students’ sense of belonging and self-determination.
Peer Advising Program
Revitalize peer advising program with new training in DEIJ concepts and practices. Upper-division students interested in the program will be selected through an application process administered by the Office of Student Life and will serve as co-teachers in the First-year Seminar course. Peer mentors will contribute to new students’ sense of belonging and affirm the cultural wealth of incoming students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.
To apply to be a Peer Mentor contact Student Life.
Redesign of Online Courses
Redesign courses for online instruction for post-traditional students in the Bachelor’s Degree for Professionals. The goal is to develop a curriculum in the Bachelor’s Degree for Professionals program for post-traditional students, who are overwhelmingly Hispanic and low-income, that may be completed online, in-person, or both.
Financial Literacy
Each year one financial literacy workshop will be offered to 75 students. Family members will also be welcome and Spanish interpretation will be available.
The Financial Aid office will start a chat platform to provide 24-hour, real-time interactive services to students and families. Special effort will be made to promote the program to Hispanic students and students from first-generation/low-income families.