2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

WIP: Program Leaders’ Perceptions of Recruitment Strategies for Engineering Bridge and Success Programs

Presented at FPD: WIP Papers - Access, Bridge Programs, Retention, and Pathways

Evidence demonstrates that Baccalaureate Engineering Success and Transition (BEST) Programs support the transition, success, and retention of engineering students at 4-year institutions in the U.S. Program leaders encounter difficulties in recruiting students from all backgrounds into those programs, yet there is little literature focusing on program recruiting practices. To understand effective strategies for those programs to recruit students from a wide range of backgrounds, we employed an explanatory sequential mixed-method study using surveys and interviews based on the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) framework. This work-in-progress (WIP) paper reports preliminary results on the recruitment practices, effectiveness, and barriers from program leaders’ perspectives. The survey showed the highest-rated effective change agents are program teams, students, parents/family, faculty/instructors/mentors, and inclusive offices/initiatives, while the highest-rated effective communication channels are campus tours/visits, websites, emails, and mail/flyers. However, not all of them were the top frequently used recruitment strategies by those programs, probably due to the reported barriers such as lack of funding, time, and resources. The survey results align with interview results that suggested relationship recruiting as the most effective recruitment strategy.

Authors

Dr. Xinyu Zhang http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-5180-7048 Purdue University [biography]

Dr. Xinyu Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering at Purdue University, a licensed Professional Engineer, and an ABET program evaluator. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After several years in engineering consulting and entrepreneurship, she returned to academia and her work spans environmental, biological, chemical, and civil engineering disciplines. Her research interests include broadening participation in engineering, teaching technology application, sustainability-focused curriculum innovations, and engineering entrepreneurship, as well as discipline-based topics such as sustainable biomanufacturing and energy-water-environment nexus. She has served as Principal Investigator on several projects funded by the National Science Foundation, nonprofit organizations, and industry partners.
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.
Joseph Grabczynski Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

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