California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) was awarded a five-year grant, "Promoting Excellence in Graduate Education and Increasing Hispanic STEM Related Degree Completion", that began in Fall 2019. Despite the COVID-19 impact during the first year of grant implementation, the institution has established a co-director leadership structure to complete seven tasks committed in the grant proposal: (1) Establishing physical space for a Graduate Research Center (GRC), (2) Purchasing computers and software for the GRC, (3) Hiring the essential personnel (Project Assistant), (4) Creating mechanism for fiscal management, (5) Organizing the Advisory Committee, (6) Hosting the First Grad Fair, and (7) Facilitating 11 Graduate Student Center workshops. The evaluation outcomes, as illustrated by attainment of the seven milestones, indicate that the program expectation has been met for the first year. Additional accomplishment in formative evaluation is demonstrated by development of a "Rate of Progress" to track student performance toward degree completion. The conclusion section includes three recommendations for improving "program quality," expanding "STEM education capacity," and strengthening "graduate school-going culture" in Year 2 of the grant administration.