2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

WIP: investigate recruitment strategies used by engineering bridge and success programs to recruit underserved students

Presented at Track 6: Technical Session 4: WIP: investigate recruitment strategies used by engineering bridge and success programs to recruit underserved students

Engineering bridge and success programs have been used to support the transition and retention of students in engineering and computing majors at 4-year institutions in the U.S. Many bridge and success programs also aim to broaden participation in engineering and computing by recruiting underserved students such as underrepresented minorities (URMs), women, first-generation students, and low socio-economic status (SES) students. However, their program leaders frequently report difficulties recruiting students from these groups. There is little literature focusing on the recruitment of bridge and success programs. Understanding effective recruitment strategies to reach and convince underserved students to participate in those programs can increase the use of effective practices by program leaders and disseminate best recruitment practices.

Our research aims to identify which recruitment strategies are in use, which are most effective, and barriers to communicating with prospective underserved students of the engineering bridge and success programs. The research project includes several stages, investigating perspectives from both program leaders and students. This stage of the study will explore the effectiveness of different communication channels and change agents to reach and persuade underserved students to participate in engineering bridge and success programs from program leaders’ perspectives. This is an explanatory sequential mixed method study based on the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory framework. This work-in-progress (WIP) paper will report on instrument development, sampling procedure, planned data analysis, and current progress. This research will also broaden knowledge on applying DOI theory to increase recruitment effectiveness.

Authors

Dr. Xinyu Zhang Purdue University [biography]

Dr. Xinyu Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Environmental and Ecological Engineering (EEE) at Purdue University’s College of Engineering. She received her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a North Carolina-licensed Professional Engineer, and currently leads an NSF project on recruitment strategies for engineering bridge and success programs. Her research interests include engineering education such as broadening participation in engineering, teaching technology innovations, and engineering entrepreneurship, as well as EEE discipline-based topics such as energy-water-environment nexus and sustainable biomanufacturing. Previously, Dr. Zhang was a Teaching Assistant Professor of Engineering at West Virginia University and has successfully led and expanded their summer bridge program for incoming first-year engineering students called Academy of Engineering Success (AcES).
Lynette Michaluk West Virginia University [biography]

PI, is a social sciences researcher at the West Virginia University Center for Excellence in STEM Education. Her research interests include broadening access to and participation in STEM. She is Co-PI of the National Science Foundation KY-WV Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and Research Scientist for Secure and Upgrade Computer Science in Classrooms through an Ecosystem with Scalability & Sustainability. She is evaluator for RII Track 2 FEC: Enabling Factory to Factory (F2F) Networking for Future Manufacturing, and Department of Education Title III Strengthening Potomac State College, as well as several National Aeronautics and Space Administration STEM education initiatives.
N’Diya Harris Wright State University
Ansley Lynn Shamblin West Virginia University

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on February 9, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on February 11, 2025

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Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology