Freshman introductory engineering seminar course: coupled with bridge program equals academic success and retention

Arizona State University´s (ASU) Office of Minority Engineering Programs (OMEP) has hosted the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) Summer Bridge Program. The purpose of the program is to promote greater awareness of and recruit potential candidates to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) at ASU. The program content and curriculum were designed to prepare underrepresented ethnic minority students for success in the College at ASU. The program focused on building community and utilized undergraduate student role models as instructors, while the curriculum focused on engineering design, technical communications, and a design project. Academic scholarships were awarded to all participants based on a team design project competition. The Summer 96 program saw only 12 out of 43 participate. The Summer 97 program participants were required to participate in the course as a stipulation to receive their scholarship. As a result, all 38 participants chose to register for the seminar course or the Foundation Coalition Match program at ASU. The academic success of these students during their first semester is evaluated, compared, and correlated with several measures including (1) a comparative analysis of seminar course success between the students who participated in the bridge program and those who did not; (2) students scores on the university mathematics placement examination and the students class grade earned in their beginning mathematics class; and (3) the students use of the MEP support system (i.e. tutoring program, academic excellence program).