2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Summer Bridge programs, a widely accepted strategy for facilitating students’ transition into the college learning environment, vary considerably in content and goals (Ashley et al., 2017; Smith & Williamson, 2024). In a systematic review, Smith & Williamson (2024) concluded that Bridge programs are more likely to place emphasis either on solely academic or retention related goals, than affective, or on a combination of academic with affective goals. Considering the multi-layered nature of academic success (Ndoye et al., 2020) our institution’s Bridge combines college-level instruction in core classes with activities that focus on numerous psychological factors such as student self-efficacy in academic subjects, sense of belonging to campus and program community, social and academic adjustment, and motivation to complete the engineering degree. In this study, we combine mixed methods data to evaluate the impact of Bridge with a sample of 35 engineering students of diverse ethnic backgrounds, in three phases: The first and second phases implement a repeated measures design that assesses student self-efficacy in academic subjects, sense of belonging to campus and program community, and social and academic adjustment. The first Likert type survey is distributed to students a week before the program and the second survey at the program completion. The post-program survey includes the same questions as the pre-program survey to help us examine if participation has resulted in a statistically significant growth. Two questions are added to the post program survey to facilitate understanding whether and how the program might have motivated students to complete their engineering studies. At the end of Fall semester, we follow up and examine associations between self-efficacy and academic adjustment with students’ Fall semester academic performance. The study’s quantitative findings show the program’s positive impact on the measured psychological factors, while qualitative analysis help us identify program components that strengthen student motivation to complete their engineering degree. The lack of association between psychological factors and academic performance is discussed in relation to future directions in Bridge impact assessment. Even though the results of the present study are specific to the present program’s content and goals, they can be informative to the value and assessment of similar programs aiming at student success in college.

Ashley, M., Cooper, K. M., Cala, J. M., & Brownell, S. E. (2017). Building better bridges into STEM: A synthesis of 25 years of literature on STEM summer Bridge programs. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 16(1), es3.

Ndoye, A., Clarke, S., & Henderson, C. (2020). Predicting college students’ academic success. Journal of Student Success and Retention, 6(1), 36–61.

Smith, J. M., & Williamson, J. (2024), Summer Bridge Programs for Engineering Students: A Systematic Literature Review. Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon.