TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable bridges from campus to campus
T2 - 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference, ASEE 2020
AU - Cohan, Catherine L.
AU - Bandyopadhyay, Pradip K.
AU - Hassler, Ryan Scott
AU - Johnson, Mark William
AU - Kagan, Michael
AU - Schmiedekamp, Ann Marie
AU - Shull, Peter J.
AU - Butler, Peter J.
AU - Peeples, Tonya L.
N1 - Funding Information:
promote opportunities for all students to pursue education and careers in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). As an individual researcher, an administrator and as a leader in the state and national community, Dr. Peeples has made an impact on improving access to STEM careers through personal commitment, local partnerships, institutional leadership and effective collaboration. Dr. Peeples is biochemical engineering researcher and served as Associate Director of the UI Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing and on the coordinating committee for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grant in biotechnology. As a Professor, she has mentored a diverse group of high school, undergraduate and graduate students including three high school students, 64 undergraduate and 13 graduate students, and three postdoctoral fellows. Several of her graduate and undergraduate student researchers have won local, regional and national awards for their work. Dr. Peeples is influencing faculty and institutional leaders through leadership in the Aspire Alliance, an NSF INCLUDES collaborative effort. On her academic leadership roles she has implemented search committee training on implicit bias and best practices for recruiting diverse faculty. As a leader in the University Center for Exemplary Mentoring funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, she trains faculty in mentoring minority students. These activities are ”game changers” in helping engineering programs enhance enrollment growth and increasing numbers of women and minority students, faculty and staff. She has established collaborations to extend a welcoming environment to all students. She has received numerous awards for service to the local state and national STEM communities, including Outstanding Service Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Minority Affairs Committee, the Collegiate Service Award from the UI CoE, the Michael J. Brody Award for Faculty Excellence in Service, the UI Diversity Catalyst Award. In 2015 she was the recipient of the Pioneers of Diversity Award from AIChE. In 2016 she was a fellow of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering and Sciences (ELATES) program. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.
Funding Information:
We are grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting the Sustainable Bridges project. Please note that any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The data presented here on the first three cohorts of the Engineering Ahead first-year bridge program for pre-major Engineering students is part of the larger Sustainable Bridges project (#1525367).
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society for Engineering Education 2020.
PY - 2020/6/22
Y1 - 2020/6/22
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of the Sustainable Bridges from Campus to Campus project (NSF IUSE #1525367, known locally as Engineering Ahead) is to establish summer bridge programs that serve Engineering students at regional campuses of The Pennsylvania State University. Summer bridge programs for incoming Engineering students were started at the Abington, Altoona, and Berks regional campuses. Recruitment focuses on enrolling racially underrepresented domestic students in Engineering (i.e., African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Pacific Islander) into the bridge programs. The project also supports an established summer bridge program for racially underrepresented incoming Engineering students at the flagship University Park campus. As of this writing, we are completing Year 4 of the 5-year project. This paper presents aggregated data through their second year of college the entrance-to-major process for the first three cohorts of Engineering Ahead participants and a sample of matched comparison students who did not participate in the program. Goals: The overarching goal of this project is to increase retention and graduation among racially underrepresented Engineering students, with a focus on students who start their Penn State education at a regional campus. Institutional retention data indicate that retention in Engineering among students at a regional campus is nearly half that of Engineering students who start at the flagship campus. Part of that difference in retention is likely related to social integration and access to academic support. Thus, an intent of this project is to implement academic and social support strategies (pre-college summer bridge program & clustered enrollment in the same first-year seminar) to improve junior-year retention among racially underrepresented and underserved Engineering students. We aim to improve retention in Engineering in the junior year by 20 percentage points. The central research question is to examine whether academic outcomes and retention in Engineering differed as a function of participation in the support strategies. To examine variation in outcomes among participants in our program, we will examine contextual factors such as whether the bridge program was residential or non-residential, whether the bridge program was located at a student's assigned campus for the fall or at a different campus in the Penn State system, and whether the student completed the degree at one campus or transitioned from a regional campus to the flagship campus (native vs. 2+2 students). Method: Accepted incoming Engineering students at the Abington, Altoona, Berks, and University Park campuses in the Penn State system were encouraged to apply to a summer bridge program to support success in math and science during the first year via letter, email, and presentations at accepted student programs. The bridge programs for incoming first-year students consist of 5 summer bridge programs across 4 campuses in the Penn State system. The total sample size is 490, with 245 participants and 245 comparison students. To assess the effectiveness of these academic and social support strategies for incoming undergraduate Engineering majors, we will examine math course grades, grade point average, entrance-to-major status (i.e., did a student enroll in an Engineering major, another STEM major, or a non-STEM major), and enrollment status (i.e., whether or not still at Penn State). Students were matched on gender, race, campus assignment, and SAT Math score (within 1 standard deviation). Results: Compared to a matched comparison sample, the Engineering Ahead students earned statistically higher grades in their first college math course by half a letter grade, were less likely to drop their first math course, and earned a higher grade point average at the end of their first year of college. Conclusions: The significantly higher math course grades for the bridge students compared to the matched comparison students suggest that the bridge programming and cohort building benefitted the students. We will continue to track Cohorts 1 to 3 as well as Cohort 4 (2019). Plans are underway to enroll Cohort 5 in the summer of 2020. Future analyses will involve an examination of whether STEM-major status and retention status are related to transfer status within the University, that is whether students matriculate at one campus in the University system or transfer between campuses within the University system to complete their degree.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of the Sustainable Bridges from Campus to Campus project (NSF IUSE #1525367, known locally as Engineering Ahead) is to establish summer bridge programs that serve Engineering students at regional campuses of The Pennsylvania State University. Summer bridge programs for incoming Engineering students were started at the Abington, Altoona, and Berks regional campuses. Recruitment focuses on enrolling racially underrepresented domestic students in Engineering (i.e., African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Pacific Islander) into the bridge programs. The project also supports an established summer bridge program for racially underrepresented incoming Engineering students at the flagship University Park campus. As of this writing, we are completing Year 4 of the 5-year project. This paper presents aggregated data through their second year of college the entrance-to-major process for the first three cohorts of Engineering Ahead participants and a sample of matched comparison students who did not participate in the program. Goals: The overarching goal of this project is to increase retention and graduation among racially underrepresented Engineering students, with a focus on students who start their Penn State education at a regional campus. Institutional retention data indicate that retention in Engineering among students at a regional campus is nearly half that of Engineering students who start at the flagship campus. Part of that difference in retention is likely related to social integration and access to academic support. Thus, an intent of this project is to implement academic and social support strategies (pre-college summer bridge program & clustered enrollment in the same first-year seminar) to improve junior-year retention among racially underrepresented and underserved Engineering students. We aim to improve retention in Engineering in the junior year by 20 percentage points. The central research question is to examine whether academic outcomes and retention in Engineering differed as a function of participation in the support strategies. To examine variation in outcomes among participants in our program, we will examine contextual factors such as whether the bridge program was residential or non-residential, whether the bridge program was located at a student's assigned campus for the fall or at a different campus in the Penn State system, and whether the student completed the degree at one campus or transitioned from a regional campus to the flagship campus (native vs. 2+2 students). Method: Accepted incoming Engineering students at the Abington, Altoona, Berks, and University Park campuses in the Penn State system were encouraged to apply to a summer bridge program to support success in math and science during the first year via letter, email, and presentations at accepted student programs. The bridge programs for incoming first-year students consist of 5 summer bridge programs across 4 campuses in the Penn State system. The total sample size is 490, with 245 participants and 245 comparison students. To assess the effectiveness of these academic and social support strategies for incoming undergraduate Engineering majors, we will examine math course grades, grade point average, entrance-to-major status (i.e., did a student enroll in an Engineering major, another STEM major, or a non-STEM major), and enrollment status (i.e., whether or not still at Penn State). Students were matched on gender, race, campus assignment, and SAT Math score (within 1 standard deviation). Results: Compared to a matched comparison sample, the Engineering Ahead students earned statistically higher grades in their first college math course by half a letter grade, were less likely to drop their first math course, and earned a higher grade point average at the end of their first year of college. Conclusions: The significantly higher math course grades for the bridge students compared to the matched comparison students suggest that the bridge programming and cohort building benefitted the students. We will continue to track Cohorts 1 to 3 as well as Cohort 4 (2019). Plans are underway to enroll Cohort 5 in the summer of 2020. Future analyses will involve an examination of whether STEM-major status and retention status are related to transfer status within the University, that is whether students matriculate at one campus in the University system or transfer between campuses within the University system to complete their degree.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85095751307&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85095751307&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85095751307
SN - 2153-5965
VL - 2020-June
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
M1 - 1302
Y2 - 22 June 2020 through 26 June 2020
ER -