For 40 years, USC Viterbi School of Engineering has collaborated with PreK-12 schools, teachers, and students to strengthen STEM pathways that broaden college and career options. Our programs and research-based interventions offer project-based experiences that support the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards and serve the nation’s urgent need for a STEM-ready workforce.

Our mission is to:

• Improve the diversity of STEM fields through targeted outreach to underrepresented minority groups and girls
• Provide high impact programs locally, regionally, nationally and globally
• Facilitate PreK-12 STEM education networks and research
• Share the broader impacts of USC Viterbi’s faculty research 

Read our Diversity and Inclusion Statement here.

The USC Viterbi School of Engineering brings innovative STEM projects, programs, and professional development to PreK-12 schools and teachers in Southern California through VAST - Viterbi Adopt-a-School, Adopt-a-Teacher - the research-based component of USC Viterbi’s STEM outreach. VAST engages under-represented minorities in high needs, under-resourced schools so they can experience firsthand the social benefits of engineering research. We focus on experiential learning in engineering, enabling PreK-12 teachers and students to tour research labs on campus, to engage with USC Viterbi faculty and students, and sometimes embedding students and teachers in labs or on computational research projects. 

Our goal is to inspire the younger generations, their families and teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math by sharing the broader impacts of research of USC Viterbi faculty and Ph.D. students and creating programs specifically to bridge local and national gaps in STEM educational equity.

USC Viterbi STEM Educational Outreach Programs (STEM-EOP) is a program whose mission is to increase the number of educationally disadvantaged and underrepresented K-12 students who matriculate to four-year universities and graduate with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

STEM-EOP engages the university and underserved communities throughout Southern California by serving historically and educationally disadvantaged K-12 students to promote student learning through a pipeline of elementary schools through high schools leading to enrollment in four-year colleges and universities and majors in STEM fields.