Variability in STEM Summer Bridge Programs: Associations with Belonging and STEM Self-Efficacy (original) (raw)
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Summer Program for Transitioning STEM Minority Students from Two-year to Four-year College Degrees
2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
In this paper we describe a summer program designed to support institution-wide improvements in community college students' transfer and attainment of a baccalaureate degree. The program helps community college students transfer to a four-year institution by addressing the opportunities and challenges for students who want to pursue a baccalaureate degree. It encourages academically and economically disadvantaged students as well as minority students, Hispanic-American, Native American, and African-American, to continue their education beyond community college. The program includes academic tutoring and comprehensive advising, 3-credit university-level course, competitive stipend, and room/meals. Students live on the University campus while completing an undergraduate research internship with a faculty member and graduate students. The program has achieved a success transfer rate of over 70% in the past years, and has received several awards including the ABET 2010 Claire L. Felbinger Award for Diversity, for the extraordinary success in achieving or facilitating diversity and inclusiveness in the technological segments of our society.
2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings
(NCSU) focused on researching diversity Issues in Engineering. Dr. Adams graduated with his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from NCSU in December 2014 after completing his dissertation which focused on Transportation Engineering Materials. During his time as an undergraduate and as a graduate student at NCSU, Dr. Adams actively participating in a wide range of efforts aimed at increasing the recruitment, retention, and advancement of minority student groups studying engineering on campus. These personal experiences fueled his desire to pursue research opportunities in the field of Diversity in Higher Education, specifically in STEM disciplines. During his time as a postdoctoral research, Dr. Adams has established the Minority Summer Research Program at NCSU and is conducting research related to various diversity issues on campus.
This quasi-experimental, action-research study explored a five-week pre-enrollment initiative called the Pathways Summer Bridge (PSB) Program in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU). Theoretically framed and developed using the six components of Tinto's (1993) longitudinal model of institutional departure, the PSB Program had as its ultimate goal to improve the re-enrollment and retention rates of academically underprepared first-year students who were predominately from first-generation and underrepresented populations. Results indicate that participants' confidence about college expectations and their sense of belonging were higher than a control group of traditional first-year students, and their re-enrollment rates were higher than campus and university averages.
American Behavioral Scientist, 2011
Summer bridge programs (SBPs) are increasingly popular in higher education as a strategy for helping students prepare for college, yet empirical studies in this area have remained largely descriptive and in short supply. The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of SBP participation on preparation for college in four areas: academic self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and academic and social skills. Survey data from a SBP cohort were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate statistics. Results suggest that SBP participation positively affects specific academic skills (e.g., use of technology, interpreting syllabus) and academic self-efficacy. Positive beliefs about one's academic skills and precollege aptitude also positively predict first-semester grades in college, explaining approximately 30% of the variance in first-semester GPA. Implications for further research, federal and institutional policy, and educational practice are highlighted.
Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 2020
Relying on semi-structured, qualitative interviews with 13 Latino male undergraduates in engineering, this study explored students experiences and sense of belonging within a Minority Retention Program at a 4-year public university in California. Findings support extent research on the importance of structural interventions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) while highlighting nuance in experiences of Latino males, including perceptions of stigma associated with participation. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
Frontiers in Education
Undergraduate research opportunities have been demonstrated to promote recruitment, retention, and inclusion of students from underrepresented groups in STEM disciplines. The opportunity to engage in hands-on, discovery-based activities as part of a community helps students develop a strong self-identity in STEM and strengthens their self-efficacy in what can otherwise be daunting fields. Kansas State University has developed an array of undergraduate research opportunities, both in the academic year and summer, and has established a management infrastructure around these programs. The Graduate School, which hosts its own Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program aimed at URM and first-generation college students, coordinates the leadership of the other grant-funded programs, and conducts a series of enrichment and networking activities for students from all the programs. These include professional development as well as primarily social sessions. The Kansas LSAMP, led by Ka...
The Case for Summer Bridge: Building Social and Cultural Capital for Talented Black STEM Students
Science Educator, 2011
This study uses focus groups to examine the importance of a pre-college summer bridge program for highly talented black students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Longitudinal data were collected from 134 participants who identified three aspects of Summer Bridge that were particularly helpful: academic, social, and professional. An in-depth approach and emphasis on developing a strong community sets the Meyerhoff Summer Bridge apart from many other orientation programs. Furthermore, by enhancing students' cultural and social capital, the program helps students succeed. The findings illuminate elements of orientation programs that are useful to talented students and offer insight into important means to enhance summer bridge programs. Keywords: STEM, minorities, summer bridge, higher education, social and cultural capital, qualitative research Introduction An extreme achievement gap exists between white and black students in science, technology, engine...
Race and gender differences in how sense of belonging influences decisions to major in STEM
Background: Women and students of color are widely underrepresented in most STEM fields. In order to investigate this underrepresentation, we interviewed 201 college seniors, primarily women and people of color, who either majored in STEM or started but dropped a STEM major. Here we discuss one section of the longer interview that focused on students' sense of belonging, which has been found to be related to retention. In our analysis, we examine the intersections of race and gender with students' sense of belonging, a topic largely absent from the current literature. Results: We found that white men were most likely to report a sense of belonging whereas women of color were the least likely. Further, we found that representation within one's STEM sub-discipline, namely biology versus the physical sciences, impacts sense of belonging for women. Four key factors were found to contribute to sense of belonging for all students interviewed: interpersonal relationships, perceived competence, personal interest, and science identity. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that students who remain in STEM majors report a greater sense of belonging than those who leave STEM. Additionally, we found that students from underrepresented groups are less likely to feel they belong. These findings highlight structural and cultural features of universities, as well as STEM curricula and pedagogy, that continue to privilege white males.
2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2014
is a Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She is currently a participant in the National Science Foundation sponsored Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training in Magnetic and Nanostructured Materials (IGERT-MNM) program-a collaborative effort between Purdue University, Cornell University and Norfolk State University. Her research interests include the development, evaluation, and assessment of co-curricular and extra-curricular STEM programs to diverse audiences across the education continuum (e.g. community members, K-12 students, undergraduate students, graduate students, and industry professionals) in varying contexts.
Situating Second-Year Success: Understanding Second-Year STEM Experiences at a Liberal Arts College
Cell Biology Education, 2016
Challenges particular to second-year students have been identified that can impact persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. We implemented a program to improve student success in intermediate-level science courses by helping students to feel they belonged and could succeed in STEM. We used survey measures of perceptions and attitudes and then qualitative measures to characterize the impact of support strategies, including peer mentoring, a second-year science student retreat, learning and advising support resources, and department-specific activities. Analysis of registration and transcript information revealed underperformance by students of color (SOC) and first-generation (FG) students in 200-level science courses. Comparison of these data before and during programming revealed significant improvement in success rates of these students in 200-level biology and chemistry courses, but success rates of SOC and FG students remain lower than the ...