Evaluating the five pillars of a Summer Bridge Program and their influence on participants' intentions to complete an engineering degree.

Lorena Benavides-Riano; Mahnas Jean Mohammadi-Aragh

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Conference: 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: February 9, 2025
Start Date: February 9, 2025
End Date: February 11, 2025
Conference Session: Track 5: Technical Session 1: Evaluating the five pillars of a Summer Bridge Program and their influence on participants' intentions to complete an engineering degree
Tagged Topics: Diversity and 2025 CoNECD Paper Submissions
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--54085
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/54085
Download Count: 13

Paper Authors

biography

Lorena Benavides-Riano Mississippi State University

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Lorena Benavides-Riano, originally from Colombia, is a second-year Engineering Ph.D. student at Mississippi State University. In July 2020, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering at the National University of Colombia. After graduation, Lorena worked as a research assistant investigating the effects of development projects on environmental parameters and rural communities in Colombia, South America. Lorena has also been part of initiatives that promote access to high-quality education, gender equality, and environmental protection. Lorena started her doctoral studies at Mississippi State University, where she serves as a graduate assistant in the Office of Inclusive Excellence at the Bagley College of Engineering. Currently, Lorena is interested in learning more about student excellence and how to close gaps for underrepresented students in STEM fields.

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biography

Mahnas Jean Mohammadi-Aragh Mississippi State University orcid.org/0000-0002-3094-3734

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Jean Mohammadi-Aragh is the Director of Bagley College of Engineering Office of Inclusive Excellence and Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University. Through her interdependent roles in research, teaching, and service, Jean is actively breaking down academic and social barriers to foster an environment where diverse and creative people are successful in the pursuit of engineering and computing degrees. Jean’s efforts have been recognized with numerous awards including the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development award, the American Society for Engineering Education John A. Curtis Lecturer award, and the Bagley College of Engineering Service award. Jean earned her B.S. and M.S. in computer engineering from Mississippi State University, and her Ph.D. in engineering education from Virginia Tech.

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Abstract

Keywords: Pre-college, Undergraduate, Engineering. Abstract In the United States, increasing enrollment and retention in engineering degrees remains an ongoing challenge in higher education. Moreover, current university educational efforts aim to increase the immediate enrollment of diverse students right after high school completion. To ensure academic success and persistence in engineering in the early stages of college life, early educational programs such as Summer Bridge are developed to increase academic preparation, goal achievement, and persistence in students prior to their first academic semester. Even though Summer Bridge Programs (SBP) are well known across higher institutions, little research has been conducted about the impact of the program on student success, especially for underrepresented minority students (URM). At Mississippi State University, the Summer Bridge program has been implemented for more than 25 years. However, a strategic partnership has recently been implemented that provides cooperation between the university and industry sponsors. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the new SBP structure at MSU in enhancing college success for incoming engineering students. The paper provides an overview of the five pillars of the program (academics, bonding, engineering at MSU, engineering projects, and industry), their goals, expected outcomes, and ways to assess their contribution to the retention of URM students. By conducting pre- and post-student surveys with the 36 participants in the 2024 cohort, we investigated how participation in the summer bridge program affects academic readiness, self-efficacy levels, goal orientation, expectations, and sense of belonging among participants and ultimately their intentions to pursue or not pursue an engineering major. The paper presents the results using scale instruments and an evaluation of the degree to which the goals and objectives of the current program structure were met. We also use the survey results to identify important summer bridge activities that improve academic readiness and success for incoming engineering students, with a special focus on Black engineering students as they represent the majority of participation in our program. Finally, results from the data collection are used to identify areas of improvement for future cohorts in an attempt to understand the driving factors that influence persistence in engineering degrees at the Bagley College of Engineering.

Citation
Format

Benavides-Riano, L., & Mohammadi-Aragh, M. J. (2025, February), Evaluating the five pillars of a Summer Bridge Program and their influence on participants' intentions to complete an engineering degree. Paper presented at 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--54085

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Keywords: Pre-college, Undergraduate, Engineering.
Abstract
In the United States, increasing enrollment and retention in engineering degrees remains an ongoing challenge in higher education. Moreover, current university educational efforts aim to increase the immediate enrollment of diverse students right after high school completion. To ensure academic success and persistence in engineering in the early stages of college life, early educational programs such as Summer Bridge are developed to increase academic preparation, goal achievement, and persistence in students prior to their first academic semester. Even though Summer Bridge Programs (SBP) are well known across higher institutions, little research has been conducted about the impact of the program on student success, especially for underrepresented minority students (URM). At Mississippi State University, the Summer Bridge program has been implemented for more than 25 years. However, a strategic partnership has recently been implemented that provides cooperation between the university and industry sponsors. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the new SBP structure at MSU in enhancing college success for incoming engineering students. The paper provides an overview of the five pillars of the program (academics, bonding, engineering at MSU, engineering projects, and industry), their goals, expected outcomes, and ways to assess their contribution to the retention of URM students. By conducting pre- and post-student surveys with the 36 participants in the 2024 cohort, we investigated how participation in the summer bridge program affects academic readiness, self-efficacy levels, goal orientation, expectations, and sense of belonging among participants and ultimately their intentions to pursue or not pursue an engineering major. The paper presents the results using scale instruments and an evaluation of the degree to which the goals and objectives of the current program structure were met. We also use the survey results to identify important summer bridge activities that improve academic readiness and success for incoming engineering students, with a special focus on Black engineering students as they represent the majority of participation in our program. Finally, results from the data collection are used to identify areas of improvement for future cohorts in an attempt to understand the driving factors that influence persistence in engineering degrees at the Bagley College of Engineering.
AU  - Lorena Benavides-Riano
AU  - Mahnas Jean Mohammadi-Aragh
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2025/02/09
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Evaluating the five pillars of a Summer Bridge Program and their influence on participants' intentions to complete an engineering degree.
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/54085
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--54085
ER  -