2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

WIP: From Isolated Interventions to Pathways Systems: Early Insights into Ecosystems of Support for Pathways to Engineering and Computing

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

This work-in-progress paper introduces a cross-sector partnership assembled to design and implement a virtual bridge model to facilitate the high-school-to-college transition. First-year students often face academic, social, and cultural challenges as they adjust to increased rigor, a faster pace, and more autonomy. In response, summer bridge programs have emerged to strengthen students’ academic skills while also helping them acclimate to new environments. These programs have long shown promise as interventions that improve students’ first-year GPAs, academic self-efficacy, metacognition, sense of belonging, and relationship-building skills. Recent studies have also explored how bridge programs shape students’ expectations and motivations for engineering and computer science careers.

However, little research examines the role of concurrent or follow-up interventions beyond the bridge experience in contributing to students’ ability to effectively integrate into their engineering college and broader university environment. Current research practices often emphasize discrete interventions implemented and are studied in isolation from the systems of interventions necessary to support scholars' transitions across the education-to-career continuum. These practices result in a lack of scholarship on the comprehensive approaches necessary to support students within and beyond the first year of college.

To explore this phenomenon, we employ a collective case study approach and draw on narrative inquiry to examine participants’ experiences across cases. We examine how opportunity structures and supports inform students’ identity trajectories in engineering and computer science. This work-in-progress identifies four patterns: (1) opportunity structures serve as bridges and sequences across contexts; (2) faculty and student success staff act as brokers to external experiential learning opportunities; (3) institutional policies shape students’ horizons for action and agency; and (4) living and learning communities function as both informational and interpersonal opportunity structures. These early findings illustrate how external programs and institutional policies intersect to shape students’ opportunity structures and early career paths in engineering and computing.

Authors

Dr. Brianna Benedict McIntyre National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. [biography]

Dr. Brianna Benedict McIntyre is the Director of Research at NACME. She is an active member and professional development committee leader for the American Society for Engineering Education’s Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her primary research is grounded in understanding how interdisciplinary engineering programs exist as hybrid spaces for undergraduate students navigating a traditionally siloed engineering culture and challenging the dominant narrative of becoming an engineer. She has also contributed to research efforts focused on latent diversity, identity development, and organizational change efforts to broaden the participation of African American and Hispanic/Latinx students in engineering. Her most notable accomplishments were her recognition as one of seven recipients of the 2019 American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award; Purdue’s College of Engineering Outstanding Service and Leadership Award in 2019; and Purdue’s Graduate School Mentoring Award in 2021. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Education from Purdue University. She completed a postdoc in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech.
Heather McCall University of Kentucky [biography]

Heather McCall is a Ph.D. candidate in STEM Education at the University of Kentucky, where she serves as a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant and Early Launch Coordinator for the College of Engineering. Her research focuses on engineering identity development, with the goal of improving persistence and broadening participation in engineering and other STEM pathways. Her current dissertation examines the use of mathematical model-eliciting (MEA) interventions to support high school engineering students through a mixed methods approach measuring mathematical modeling competencies and engineering identity.

Heather has experience in research and program evaluation for NSF-funded Physics Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU). Prior to her doctoral studies, she taught engineering, mathematics, and physics courses in secondary education across Kentucky. She holds an M.Ed. in Mathematics from Xavier University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. She is currently based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dr. Carmen Sidbury National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc.
Dr. Johné M. Parker http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1659-9647 University of Kentucky [biography]

Johné M. Parker is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean of Access & Community Engagement in the Pigman College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky. She received her BME, MSME and Ph.D. degrees from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. Michael Thure Johnson P.E. University of Kentucky [biography]

Dr. Michael T. Johnson is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Success at the University of Kentucky Pigman College of Engineering, as well as a full professor in the UK Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Johnson received his Ph.D. in ECE from Purdue University in 2000, with a research focus in the area of automatic speech recognition. He also holds an M.S.E.E. degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and B.S. degrees in both Computer Science Engineering and Engineering with Electrical Concentration from LeTourneau University in Longview, TX.

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