TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable Bridges from Campus to Campus
T2 - 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference, ASEE 2021
AU - Cohan, Catherine L.
AU - Griggs, Lauren A.
AU - Hassler, Ryan Scott
AU - Johnson, Mark William
AU - Kagan, Michael
AU - Butler, Peter J.
AU - Peeples, Tonya L.
N1 - 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. We would also like to express gratitude for these additional financial and in-kind support: the Penn State Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity, Accudyne Systems, the Albert and Suzanne Lord Endowment at Penn State Abington, ArcelorMittal, the Barbara Bogue Enrichment Endowment for Women in Engineering, the Guion Bluford Alumni Leadership Endowment for the Multicultural Engineering Program, Bosch Rexroth, the Getz Endowment at Penn State Altoona, Lockheed Martin, the Lucier Endowment, the Lubrizol Endowment, the Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) Support Endowment, the National Society for Black Engineers Program Endowment, and the Pifer Endowment at Penn State Berks.
Funding Information:
Professor Tonya Peeples joined the Penn State College of Engineering in August of 2018, as the Inaugural Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion and Professor of Chemical Engineering. Prior to joining Penn State she worked at the University of Iowa and in her 23 years at UI, served to advance diversity and 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:
Dr. Griggs received her B.S. in Engineering Science, with a concentration in Nanomedicine from The University of Virginia in 2012. As a doctoral student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Griggs was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship through the National Institute of Health. As the Program Coordinator for the VCU Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program, she worked to increase the number of underrepresented minority students earning baccalaureate degrees and matriculating to graduate school. As a postdoctoral scholars at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Griggs explored novel techniques to investigate the intersection of diabetes and breast cancer progression. Dr. Griggs is now an Assistant Teaching Professor, Director of the Multicultural Engineering Program and Director of the Clark Scholars Program at Penn State University. In this role, Dr. Griggs drives initiatives to improve the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups pursuing degrees in engineering and strives to foster a welcoming environment that celebrates culture and inclusion. Her passion lies in working directly with students, serving as an advisor, inspiring others through meaningful career discussions and helping others to gain confidence as well as succeed in their chosen degree fields.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
PY - 2021/7/26
Y1 - 2021/7/26
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. In 2016, residential summer bridge programs for incoming Engineering students were started at the Abington, Altoona, and Berks campuses patterned after a successful long-standing bridge program at the Penn State University Park campus. Recruitment focuses on enrolling racially underrepresented domestic students (i.e., African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Pacific Islander), women, and first-generation students in Engineering 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. In 2020 (Year 5 of the project) because of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on in-person gathering, the Engineering Ahead residential bridge programs were converted to online synchronous summer bridge programs. This paper presents data on recruitment, enrollment, retention, and students' perceptions of belonging and mattering over time. 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. Since their inception, the Engineering Ahead summer bridge programs try to increase retention and graduation through three strategies: intensive math review (pre-calculus, calculus), community building, and professional development. Central topics and questions for this paper are how we conducted online bridges, what was offered, student enrollment and retention, what we learned from the process, can social integration among students be achieved virtually, and what were student perceptions of the online bridge experience? Method: Accepted incoming Engineering students (summer and fall 2020) at the Abington, Altoona, Berks, and University Park campuses were encouraged to apply via letter, email, and presentations at accepted student programs to an online summer bridge program to support success in math and science during the first year. Eighty-six incoming students enrolled in the four online bridge programs for incoming first-year Engineering students. Results: We reliably assessed students' sense of belonging and perceived college mattering using standardized measures. Repeated measures analyses showed that there was a significant increase over the 4-week bridge programs of students' sense of belonging and perceived mattering. Conclusions: An important component of summer bridge programs is fostering a sense of community and interpersonal bonds among the students. Results showed that students enrolled in online bridge programs reported significant increases in their sense of belonging and perceived college mattering over four weeks. It appears we captured some of the benefits of summer bridge programs even though they were not residential.
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. In 2016, residential summer bridge programs for incoming Engineering students were started at the Abington, Altoona, and Berks campuses patterned after a successful long-standing bridge program at the Penn State University Park campus. Recruitment focuses on enrolling racially underrepresented domestic students (i.e., African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Pacific Islander), women, and first-generation students in Engineering 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. In 2020 (Year 5 of the project) because of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on in-person gathering, the Engineering Ahead residential bridge programs were converted to online synchronous summer bridge programs. This paper presents data on recruitment, enrollment, retention, and students' perceptions of belonging and mattering over time. 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. Since their inception, the Engineering Ahead summer bridge programs try to increase retention and graduation through three strategies: intensive math review (pre-calculus, calculus), community building, and professional development. Central topics and questions for this paper are how we conducted online bridges, what was offered, student enrollment and retention, what we learned from the process, can social integration among students be achieved virtually, and what were student perceptions of the online bridge experience? Method: Accepted incoming Engineering students (summer and fall 2020) at the Abington, Altoona, Berks, and University Park campuses were encouraged to apply via letter, email, and presentations at accepted student programs to an online summer bridge program to support success in math and science during the first year. Eighty-six incoming students enrolled in the four online bridge programs for incoming first-year Engineering students. Results: We reliably assessed students' sense of belonging and perceived college mattering using standardized measures. Repeated measures analyses showed that there was a significant increase over the 4-week bridge programs of students' sense of belonging and perceived mattering. Conclusions: An important component of summer bridge programs is fostering a sense of community and interpersonal bonds among the students. Results showed that students enrolled in online bridge programs reported significant increases in their sense of belonging and perceived college mattering over four weeks. It appears we captured some of the benefits of summer bridge programs even though they were not residential.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124546091&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85124546091&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85124546091
SN - 2153-5965
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
Y2 - 26 July 2021 through 29 July 2021
ER -