Evaluation of Engineering Readiness and Active Rate Enhanced by Intensive Summer Bridge Program
Authors: Zhou Yong , Pan Cheng-Chang (Sam) , Islam Nazmul 
Published: March 2016

An engineering Summer Bridge (Engineering Summer Readiness Workshop after 2015) program has been implemented at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) since summer 2012. After three years of program data accumulation, we can now track those participants from their freshman up to junior year (for those still active in UTB engineering) and further extend our study on the effect of the designed engineering summer program on a) the semester the participants take Calculus I; b) the semester the participants pass Calculus I; c) the first- and second-year engineering active rate; and d) the success rate in the selected engineering major courses of all the participants. We compared all the above mentioned data to the average data of the engineering majors at the same academic stage/level.

The engineering summer bridge program was originally designed to prepare the fresh high school graduates intellectually on their math and for an early readiness for their coming engineering study. More than 90% of the targeted students are Hispanic in south Texas, and English is the second language for 86% of them. As one of the components of the University of Texas System, UTB is a minority-serving institution catering mostly to the underrepresented Hispanic population of the Lower Rio Grande Valley region. It has one of the highest concentrations of Hispanic students (both in number and percentage) compared to other universities in the nation [Table 1]. Among the overall student enrollment at the university in fall 2013, 91% are Hispanic.

Most of the targeted students are academically below the top 10% in their high school graduating classes due to the pre-selection of the top 10% students by the Texas flagship universities. First-generation college-goers experience a variety of challenges as they enter and move through higher education. The Engineering Summer Bridge provides students with specific types of resources and support to ensure that they move into and through engineering study smoothly and to shorten the time for their engineering study. The 4–5 week summer bridge program at UTB intensively enhances math preparation in pre-calculus and college algebra, and also actively engages the students with the modern engineering design concepts and tools. Specific goals of the bridge programs include introducing math expectations of engineering program in the areas of College Algebra, Pre-calculus, and help students eliminate the math gap by passing the COMPASS Test as well as the Pre-calculus Test in the summer to get ready for Calculus I in the coming fall semester. The long-term goals of the ESB program aim to improve the first- and second-year retention rate and four-year graduation rate of UTB engineering majors.

Study on the previous three year’s data suggests that, compared to the overall average of the students enrolling into the UTB engineering program at the same period, summer bridge program participants have statistically started and finished their Calculus I (thus becoming engineering math ready) earlier. Participants also demonstrated higher engineering interesting which was proved by the participation rate in introductory engineering projects in the first two years of their engineering study. Besides, 88% of surveyed students reported that the program was helpful and convenient, and 100% of surveyed students reported that they would recommend the summer bridge program to a friend or a fellow student. Comparison of the first- to second-year active engineering student rate also suggests the validness of the summer bridge program.