2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

For the US to increase diversity in engineering, Community Colleges (CC) will have to play a significant role. Fifty-six (56%) of all Native Americans, 52% of all Hispanics, and 42% of all Black students in higher education are CC students. Nationally for the Fall 2015 cohort, the overall transfer rate from CCs to baccalaureate institutions is only 31.6% and a mere 15.5% of all students who start at a CC complete a bachelor's degree within six years. Although, there has been a shift in research since the 2000s, researchers are more focused on understanding the role of the receiving institutions. Research on CC admission, retention, and preparing minorities for successful transfer and engineering degree completion is still overlooked. Moreover, most CC students require remediation, which poses additional challenges to engineering enrollment. First-time college students taking remedial mathematics are less likely to major in engineering and to complete an engineering degree at a 4-year institution. With current CC demographics and student remediation needs, community colleges must develop a strategy to increase engineering enrollment, retention, and transfer.

We hypothesize that underprepared students will likely enroll and succeed in engineering if provided a contextualized strategy that decrease remediation and provided intentional support that make students feel they belong in the profession. To test this hypothesis, Wright College, an urban open-access CC and a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), created frameworks through the National Science Foundation grant to streamline two transitions: 1) High School to CCs and 2) CCs to 4-year transfer institutions. This paper focuses on streamlining the transition from High School to CCs by creating a Contextualized Bridge. The main goal of the Contextualized Bridge is to develop, implement and assess on-ramp strategies for high school students into engineering at CCs. The specific goals are to decrease remediation, increase engineering enrollment, and increase retention and belonging to the engineering profession.

The Contextualized Bridge strategies include:
1. address low self-efficacy in the profession due to gaps in math or science skills.
2. develop professional identity by creating a cohort system and promoting socialization activities.
3. alleviate financial barriers by providing a stipend.
4. strengthen connections to Wright College and the profession.
5. build awareness of engineering fields and career opportunities.

Outcomes:
The Contextualized Bridge was developed with Wright College faculty. It was first implemented in 2019 with 32 participants. After four (4) iterations, Wright College Bridge enrolled 202 diverse participants (70% Hispanic, 12% black, and 25% women). Ninety-five percent (95%) completed the program and enrolled in engineering. One hundred percent of students who completed the Bridge eliminated at least one semester of remedial mathematics, and fifty percent (50%) were directly placed in Calculus 1. Eleven (11) participants in the 2019 cohort transferred to top engineering programs within two years from the Bridge and are on track for bachelor’s degree completion within four years. Most students attribute their success to a cohort system, increased self-efficacy, and a sense of belonging to college and engineering profession.

Future work
Wright College will pilot an "Engineering Model Pathway". This pathway will integrate the Contextualized Bridge strategies into high school through dual enrollment, to establish belonging to Wright College and engineering profession early.