Why VIP
What if your teaching was your scholarship – blurring artificial boundaries between class and laboratory?
What if you could partner with a student workforce that helps train, retain, and sustain scholarly activity – increasing productivity without expanding your personnel budget?
What if you incorporated learning goals, objectives, and plans into your research enterprise – empowering students to take ownership of their education via real world experiences?
What if you could further reduce barriers for underrepresented groups to engage in your scholarship – broadening student participation and changing life trajectories?
What if experienced-based education was further institutionalized at Boise State – incentivizing students to show what they know and for you to do what you love?
The Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Program unites undergraduate education and faculty scholarship in a team-based context. Within this context, VIP teams earn academic credit for their participation in design/discovery efforts that assist faculty and graduate students with research and development issues in their areas of interest and expertise. VIP teams are:
- multidisciplinary – drawing students from all disciplines on campus;
- vertically-integrated – maintaining a mix of freshman through postdoctoral fellows each semester; and
- long-term – each student may participate for the duration of their education. Providing course credit to faculty and students incentivizes participation, while aligning stakeholders from freshman-to-faculty-to-funding agencies makes the program sustainable at the faculty level and a platform for education reform at a national level.
With its potential to reform higher ed, the VIP program is transitioning to the national and international stages. You can visit the national consortium for VIP at this site for more information http://www.vip-consortium.org/. The VIP Consortium was selected By The ABET Board Of Delegates As the recipient Of the 2019 ABET Innovation Award! Active VIP sites include Boise State University, Colorado State University, Florida International University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Howard University, Inha University, Morehouse College, National Iian University, Purdue University, Rice University, Texas A&M University, University of Hawaii – Manoa, University of Michigan, University of Strathclyde, University of Washington – Seattle, and Virginia Commonwealth University.
As a rolling application process, this is the beginning of a conversation on how VIP can help you and your students succeed! Please complete this application if you are interested in becoming a VIP coach at Boise State. I welcome applications that fully support experienced-based education, embrace multidisciplinary scholarship, support collaboration, embody diversity, and promote stakeholder alignment from freshman to faculty to funding agencies.
With great respect,
Donna Llewellyn
Executive Director, Institute for Inclusive and Transformative Scholarship
Director of Boise State VIP