Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) provides UMD students of all backgrounds, disciplines, and levels of experience with the opportunity to engage in scaffolded, multidisciplinary team-based projects.
VIP Team Information
VIP Team
Belonging for Immigrants and Refugees with Disabilities (BIRD)
VIP Faculty Mentors:
Dr. Veronica Kang
Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education
Meeting Location, Day & Time:
Benjamin Building Room 3212, Tuesdays 11:00am - 12:00pm
For each project, there are meeting locations with community partners outside of campus thus driving and or carpooling will be involved for implementation and data collection. If this is not preferred or possible, students can choose to engage in data analysis only which will involve asynchronous and on-campus meetings only.
PROMISE
Implementation/data collection will occur at the Chinese Culture and Community Service Center Academy in Rockville. Data analysis will occur asynchronously (students will work on their own and bring progress and updates to the weekly project meetings).
For students interested in implementation and data collection, staff training will be 6 Saturdays 1-4pm from 9/5-10/10 and program sessions with children will be 7 Saturdays 12-5pm from 10/17-12/5 (no meeting on 11/28 Thanksgiving week). For students interested in data analysis, students will work on their assigned task asynchronously and come back with updates and questions at the check-in meeting. Students interested in both implementation/data collection and data analysis can participate in both.
EMBRACE
Implementation/data collection will occur at different locations within Maryland and also virtually for hands-on experience with families and community advocates. Data analysis will occur asynchronously (students will work on their own and bring progress and updates to the weekly project meetings).
For students interested in implementation and data collection, they will work during the times that align with their matched organization's schedule and a reoccurring schedule will be arranged at the beginning of the semester with their organization. For students interested in data analysis, students will work on their assigned task asynchronously and come back with updates and questions at the check-in meeting. Students interested in both implementation/data collection and data analysis can participate in both.
UNITE
Implementation/data collection will occur at different locations within Maryland and also virtually for hands-on experience with families and community advocates. Data analysis will occur asynchronously (students will work on their own and bring progress and updates to the weekly project meetings).
For students interested in data collection/observation, they will join the faculty during the scheduled observation times with each educator they will observe. This will be determined at the beginning of the semester. For students interested in data analysis, students will work on their assigned task asynchronously and come back with updates and questions at the check-in meeting. Students interested in both implementation/data collection and data analysis can participate in both.
Description:
There are 3 projects in the Autism Family Culture and Communication Education Lab (ACCEL):
Promoting Meaningful Interaction and Social Engagement (PROMISE) is a community-based program for immigrant and refugee children and youth with autism established in 2023 in partnership with Chinese Culture and Community Service Center in Rockville. Students will engage in tasks such as (a) implementing behavior support (b) data collection (assist with setting up and recording the cameras and microphones and uploading and managing the recordings), and (c) data analysis (coding videos, scoring questionnaires). Recordings will be also coded using AI and we will partner with Dr. Fengfeng Ke to (1) understand how to facilitate human-AI collaboration for progress monitoring to identify resource-effective approaches in special education and related fields and (2) develop virtual simulation training for PROMISE staff through virtual role play based on scenarios from the recordings.
Enhancing Marylanders’ Belonging, Rights, and Advocacy for Disability Community (EMBRACE) is a policy advocacy project since 2025 in which students will be matched with an organization in the Maryland Equity Coalition for People with Disabilities which has +39 grassroot nonprofit organizations supporting immigrant and refugee communities with disabilities. Students will engage in implementation of “cultural navigation” which include (a) cultural translation (b) advocacy (c) system navigation (d) community education and (e) trust building and conduct interviews, observation, and collection of artifacts from community including photographs, meeting notes, and presentation materials, to synthesize and disseminate the importance and impact of cultural navigators. Students will also meet with state and county legislators to increase the awareness of cultural navigators with the long-term goal of advocating for a legislation or a budget item that supports the preparation and compensation of cultural navigators to promote a sustainable state-wide model.
Upholding Neurodiversity In Teacher Engagement with family, culture, and disability (UNITE) is a project in partnership with an early intervention program in Prince George’s County who work with birth to 2 year old children with developmental disabilities or delays. ACCEL has been providing professional development for the educators in the program since 2024 and this year, the training will focus on bilingual social emotional literacy and positive behavior and language support. Students interested in this project will support the observation of toddler groups led by educators and data analysis by tracking and synthesizing educators’ behaviors, instructional, and parent coaching practices to examine the effect of training on these outcomes.
Methods:
Qualitative e.g., Participatory action research
Quantitative e.g., Quasi experimental
Mixed-method
Majors:
Special Education
Hearing and Speech Sciences
Psychology
Public Health Public Policy
Preferred Interests:
We are looking for students who have the desire, compassion and interest in community based research with disability communities. Any of the skills, knowledge, or course experience described below will be helpful but not required.
Skills: Working with young children with disabilities and families, familiarity with recording technology, video coding, questionnaire scoring, familiarity with Microsoft Excel, clear and effective communication skills, professionalism including attending weekly meetings in timely manner, collaboration skills to work with peers, families, and community partners, ability to respond to and integrate constructive feedback, ability to speak multiple languages (e.g., Spanish, Chinese, Amharic, etc).
Knowledge: autism, disability, early childhood, language and social development, research method (e.g., mixed method, quantitative, qualitative), immigrant communities, early intervention, policy advocacy, media/technology
Courses: Research method, community partnership, special education, public policy