This project aims serve the national interest by addressing student retention and success at a rural two-year college through integration of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies across early STEM courses. Mat-Su College resides within the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in Alaska consisting of 25,000 square miles. This vastness makes it challenging for students to access advanced educational tools and hands-on lab experiences. To address this challenge, the project seeks to combine collaborative learning activities with a high-impact immersive technology approach that has the potential to significantly enhance student engagement, improve understanding of complex concepts, and foster interest in STEM fields. The broader significance of this project lies in its potential to reduce educational barriers, increase student retention and success in STEM, and create pathways to high-demand careers. Importantly, these outcomes support regional workforce development and contribute to the reduction of the state’s youth out-migration. The goals of the project are to: 1) enhance engagement, interest and conceptual understanding in STEM fields like biology, chemistry, and physics through immersive VR simulations, 2) facilitate collaborative learning through a team-based learning environment where students can work together on complex, real-world problems in an interactive virtual space, and 3) improve retention and success rates in STEM disciplines in the rural Matanus