2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Paid Pre-College STEM Bridge Programs:
Just-In-Time Support & Engagement for Community College STEM Learners

While America’s “Innovation Economy” continues to thrive and drive strong employment trends in technology, advanced manufacturing, R&D, and defense, our country’s postsecondary institutions fail to produce enough qualified graduates to meet employer demand. To further exacerbate the shortage of STEM workers, it is particularly unequal across gender and ethnicity—women, African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians remain highly underrepresented in STEM degree programs, as well as engineering and computer science professions.
Barriers for student enrollment and persistence in STEM degree programs are numerous and varied—especially in the community college context. From adverse math experiences in middle and high school to a lack of financial, academic, and social support for a rigorous STEM-based academic pathway to student self-efficacy and persistent feelings of impostor syndrome, underrepresented students face many challenges in achieving transfer to 4-year university engineering and computer science programs and, ultimately, achievement of bachelor’s degrees. Just-in-time academic support is one strategy for improving student persistence in STEM, among many other researched best practices.
To further address the barriers faced by students typically underrepresented in STEM careers, Growth Sector and the National Science Foundation-funded INCLUDES Alliance, the STEM Core Expansion, developed paid pre-college bridge programs to foster student inclusion in programming that provides a key transition to college STEM pathways. During summer 2022, Growth Sector worked with 12 partner educational institutions in four states to deliver bridge programs.
These structured and supported programs consisted of the following best practices:
• Targeted recruitment for low-income, first-generation students interested in STEM pathways who were eligible to enroll full-time at the college the subsequent fall term after the bridge program
• Stipends of at least $1,500 were provided to participants. Partners recognize that finances are a major barrier to persistence in STEM undergraduate pathways, and many low-income/first-generation students work simultaneously while attending school. The stipend helped to both attract underrepresented participants.
• Algebra-focused math workshops were delivered to provide “just-in-time” math remediation just weeks before the fall term’s credited workshops began. Individual educational institutions were allowed to create their own curriculum—many leveraging work already begun on their campus to provide remediation for entering students.
• Engaging, hands-on computer science and engineering projects were delivered Growth Sector worked with Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education to develop modules based on research being conducted at national labs (additive manufacturing/3D printing, cybersecurity, quantum information science). Some colleges leveraged their own expertise and conducted research, constructed Arduino robots to address climate change, simulated cybersecurity breaches, and fabricated water-saving products, such as water filtration systems.
• “College Knowledge” Workshops on topics including Financial Aid, Note-Taking & Time Management, Accessing Tutoring and Other On-Campus Resources, Growth Mindset were delivered.
• STEM Career Awareness activities were offered via industry guest speakers.
• Wraparound support by a Student Support Specialist included 1-on-1 check-ins with students, development of individualized educational plans, and goal-setting activities.
• Individual assistance with registration for fall STEM courses

Partners at STEM Core Alliance colleges utilize the bridge programs not as an isolated summer experience, but, as an on-ramp to academic year programming which incorporates cohort building, block scheduled math and STEM classes, and intrusive wrap-around guidance (simply called STEM Core) are underway. Through this paper, best practices from the STEM Core Expansion Alliance can be shared to enhance opportunities to engage and prepare students for rigorous STEM academic pathways via paid summer bridge programs.