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Leveraging Innovation and Optimizing Nurturing in STEM (NSF S-STEM #2130022, known locally as LION STEM Scholars) is a program developed to serve low-income undergraduate Engineering students at Penn State Berks, a regional campus of the Pennsylvania State University. As part of the program, scholars participate in a four-year comprehensive multitiered mentoring program and cohort experience. The LION STEM curricular program includes Engineering Ahead (a 4-week summer residential math-intensive bridge program prior to entering college), a first semester First-Year Seminar, and a second semester STEM-Persistence Seminar. Co-curricular activities focus on professional communication skills, financial literacy, career readiness, undergraduate research, and community engagement. The program seeks to accomplish four goals: (1) adapt, implement, and analyze evidence-based curricular and cocurricular activities to support, retain, and graduate a diverse set of the project's engineering scholars, (2) implement, test, and study through research and project evaluation strategies for systematically supporting student academic and career pathways in STEM, including development of STEM identity, (3) contribute to the knowledge base through investigation of the project's four-year multi-modal program so that other colleges may successfully implement similar programs, and (4) disseminate outcomes and findings related to the supports and interventions that promote student success to other institutions working to support low-income STEM students. The purpose of this paper is to analyze data from a repeated-measures design to provide a holistic narrative about the effects that the academic and support activities offered to LION STEM Scholars have on the development of their future-engineer role identity throughout their first year as an undergraduate engineering student. This paper presents data collected from semistructured (Smith & Osborn, 2007) audio-recorded interviews from the first cohort of LION STEM Scholars (n=7) at three different time points (pre-summer bridge, post-summer bridge, end of first semester) as well as data collected from a written survey at the end of scholars' second semester. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the Sustainable Bridges from Campus to Campus project (NSF IUSE #1525367, known locally as Engineering Ahead) is to establish summer bridge programs that serve Engineering students at regional campuses of The Pennsylvania State University. The overarching goal of this project is to increase retention and graduation among underrepresented Engineering students, with a focus on students who start their Penn State education at a regional campus. In 2016, summer bridge programs for incoming Engineering students were started at three regional campuses in the Penn State system, including the Abington, Altoona, and Berks campuses. Recruitment focused on enrolling racially underrepresented domestic students (i.e., African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Pacific Islander), women, and firstgeneration students in Engineering. The new bridge programs were tailored to the needs and resources of each campus. The project also supported an established summer bridge program for racially underrepresented incoming Engineering students at the flagship University Park campus. The goal of the Engineering Ahead summer bridge programs is to increase retention and graduation through four strategies: intensive math review (pre-calculus, calculus), community building, college success skills, and professional development. In their review of the STEM summer bridge literature, Ashley and colleagues [1] recommended to "report more information about the details of implementing bridge programs" (p 14). They noted that implementation details often are not described when published articles report on the outcomes of summer bridge programs. However, "A team developing a bridge program would benefit from more information about program logistics" (p. 14)." The 6-year Engineering Ahead project concluded at the end of 2021. Our experience initiating new bridge programs and enrolling 6 cohorts of incoming engineering students in summer bridge programs at regional and flagship campuses with different delivery methods (residential, non-residential day program, synchronous online, hybrid) can inform the higher education STEM community. The purpose of this paper is to address the Ashley et al recommendation about sharing implementation details and provide information on the logistical "how to" of starting, conducting, and hopefully sustaining engineering summer bridge programs at small and large campuses. This paper will discuss the leadership team communication and learning community, engagement of administrative leaders, program costs and resources, participant recruitment and selection focusing on underrepresented students, program size, staffing, curriculum development, sustainability, follow-up interventions, delivery method (residential, non-residential, online, hybrid), expectations for participant conduct, and addressing problems with participant conduct. Please note that outcome data from this project will be reported elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose and Goals: The purpose of the Sustainable Bridges from Campus to Campus study (NSF IUSE #1525367) is to increase the retention of racially underrepresented students (i.e., African American, Native American, and Hispanic students) in undergraduate Engineering majors. We strive to address the urgent need to expand and diversify the pool of undergraduates who earn a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) degree. To achieve this goal, the Sustainable Bridges project consists of a comprehensive series of interventions at three points in students' career at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)-entering first-year students (Engineering Ahead), rising second-year students (Jump Start), and a transition program for rising juniors changing from a Penn State regional campus to the Penn State University Park flagship campus. As of this writing, we are beginning Year 4 of the 5-year project. Previous papers described outcomes for the Engineering Ahead first-year bridge program. This paper is an interim report that describes outcomes for two cohorts of students who participated in the Jump Start second-year summer bridge intervention. Method: The Jump Start summer bridge is a 4-week residential program on the Penn State University Park (flagship) campus for rising second-year Engineering students throughout the Penn State system to prepare them for Calculus II, Differential Equations, Physics I or Physics II. Cohort building is also a significant focus. Enrollment priority is given to racially underrepresented students, those who participated in the Engineering Ahead first-year bridge program, and those from a Penn State regional campus. To assess the effectiveness of Jump Start for the first two cohorts (N = 93), we will compare participants to a sample of students who did not participate in Jump Start who were matched on sex, race/ethnicity, major, campus assignment, and SAT Math scores, for a total sample of 186 students. We compare the two groups on fall-semester math and physics course grades, fall semester grade point average, and enrollment status. We also examine the entrance-to-major status for Cohort 1 for retention in Engineering, retention in STEM, and retention at Penn State. Results and Conclusions: The preliminary results are promising for the rising second-year bridge program, particularly for Cohort 1. Compared to a matched comparison sample, Cohort 1 Jump Start students had higher grades in their math courses and were more likely to earn a grade of C or higher in the fall semester of their sophomore year following the summer bridge program. Cohort 1 Jump Start students were followed into the fall of their junior year. They were significantly more likely than the comparison students to be retained at Penn State. In 2019, we will continue to follow Cohorts 1 and 2 and enroll Cohort 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]