Bradford, V. A., & Rahhal, T., & Salim, H. (2020, July), Work In Progress: Engineering Success Bridge Program: Creating Sense of Belonging through Campus and Industry Supported Summer Bridge Program   Paper presented at 2020 First-Year Engineering Experience, East Lansing, Michigan. 10.18260/1-2--35789

\bibitem{asee_peer_35789}
  Bradford, V. A., \& Rahhal, T., \& Salim, H. (2020, July), \emph{Work In Progress: Engineering Success Bridge Program: Creating Sense of Belonging through Campus and Industry Supported Summer Bridge Program }
  Paper presented at 2020 First-Year Engineering Experience, East Lansing, Michigan.
  10.18260/1-2--35789

Victor Alonso Bradford, Tojan Rahhal, and Hani Salim P.E..  "Work In Progress: Engineering Success Bridge Program: Creating Sense of Belonging through Campus and Industry Supported Summer Bridge Program ".  2020 First-Year Engineering Experience, East Lansing, Michigan, 2020, July.  ASEE Conferences, 2020.  https://peer.asee.org/35789 Internet.  20 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_35789}
  Victor Alonso Bradford, Tojan Rahhal, and Hani Salim P.E..
  "Work In Progress: Engineering Success Bridge Program: Creating Sense of Belonging through Campus and Industry Supported Summer Bridge Program ".
  \emph{2020 First-Year Engineering Experience, East Lansing, Michigan, 2020, July}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2020.
  https://peer.asee.org/35789 Internet.  20 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_35789
author = "Victor Alonso Bradford, Tojan Rahhal, and Hani Salim P.E."
title = "Work In Progress: Engineering Success Bridge Program: Creating Sense of Belonging through Campus and Industry Supported Summer Bridge Program "
booktitle = "2020 First-Year Engineering Experience"
year = "2020"
month = "July"
address = "East Lansing, Michigan"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/35789}
number = {10.18260/1-2--35789}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This work-in-progress paper will highlight the creation and expansion of the Mizzou Engineering Success Bridge Program (ESBP), a no-cost summer transition program for incoming freshmen at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) that has grown from a week-long to a month-long program that brings campus and industry professionals together to serve engineering’s most at-risked population. 

The Engineering Success Bridge Program was organized by the First Year Engineering (FYE) Office, which serves to provide all new undergraduate students with the resources, opportunities and connections to smoothly transition to Mizzou Engineering, but also jumpstart their future careers. This retention initiative originated two years ago, with financial support from MU’s Provost Office, and has since evolved into a successful FYE Office consisting of a First Year Director, academic advisors and two graduate students. Through FYE strategies, students experience more individualized advising and follow-up, an exploration of their majors, participation in student success programs, and a better sense of community within the College of Engineering and MU.

This paper will follow the success of the FYE Office’s Engineering Success Bridge Program first two cohorts and how the office plans to expand to serve more students in June 2020. The bridge program that began as a one-week summer transition program in August 2018 was first created to serve the college’s Pre-Engineering population, students who have not met the college’s admission requirements based on ACT scores and math levels. Historically these students had significantly lower retention and graduation rates than students who met the college’s admission requirements. 

Following higher education’s best retention practices on student’s Sense of Belonging, Mizzou Engineering hosted 45 engineering freshmen in a one-week transition program before the start of their freshmen year in August 2018. This one-week program introduced students to resources and opportunities available at MU and promoted a sense of community in which students felt comfortable utilizing peer and faculty mentors for guidance, academic services, and student success strategies to smoothly transition to engineering. The FYE Office saw a 12% retention rate increase from participants compared to Pre-Engineering students who did not attend.

Continuing the success of the 2018 program, ESBP expanded to four weeks in July 2019 hosting forty incoming freshmen. The 2019 ESBP, provided at no-cost to students, featured many of the components offered in 2018 with an addition of an engineering design project, career exploration sessions, hands-on activities highlighting engineering departments, and community-building activities with current Engineering students. Along with these research-based initiative, ESBP also provided students with a Chemistry and Math mock class, a Student Success Seminar Course, 3-credit hours of Public Speaking and access to industry professionals through company site visits and presentations. In its first semester, the 2019 cohort experienced a 93% fall-to-spring retention rate within the College of Engineering.

This goal of this paper is to provide attendees with the framework to implement a similar bridge program at their institutions. Additionally, the paper will demonstrate how this research-based initiative has helped Mizzou Engineering reach its highest retention rates in recent years.

AU  - Victor Alonso Bradford
AU  - Tojan Rahhal
AU  - Hani Salim P.E.
CY  - East Lansing, Michigan
DA  - 2020/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Work In Progress: Engineering Success Bridge Program: Creating Sense of Belonging through Campus and Industry Supported Summer Bridge Program 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/35789
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--35789
ER  -