A Quantitative Analysis of a Summer Bridge Program's Impact on Students' Non-Academic Indicators

This full research paper investigates the significance of a summer bridge program on the non-academic metrics of incoming freshman computing students at an R1 institution in the United States. Summer bridge programs are designed to increase academic major preparedness, reduce attrition, and provide other opportunities such as faculty networking and community building. Our team designed and delivered a summer bridge program to serve students from historically marginalized groups in Computer Science and Engineering. We offered the program to cohorts of 35–55 students annually from 2020 through 2023. Due to COVID-19, the program was offered online in 2020 and 2021 and then moved to an in-person version in 2022 and 2023. To measure the impact of the summer program, we utilized a closed-ended Likert-scale survey both before and after the program. The survey aimed to evaluate 10 principal non-academic factors that have been proven to influence student retention in the major. These factors include students' mathematics and programming self-concept, science motivation, science identity, help-seeking and concealment attitude, growth mindset, peer community, sense of belonging, and awareness of and accessibility to resources. Survey results were consolidated and used for quantitative analyses to address three research questions: RQ1: In what way, if at all, does participation in the program affect students' non-academic indicators? RQ2: What is the difference in impact between online (2020, 2021) and in-person (2022, 2023) program modalities? RQ3: How did participants' perceptions of the program differ across the two modalities?