An Investigation of Effects of a Summer Bridge Program on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Majoring Minoritized Students’ Achievement at a Higher Education Institution

Minoritized students’ achievement disparity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors and the concomitant lack of workforce diversity in these careers have been serious concerns, prompting the need to search for intervention strategies. Research that updates the problem took varying approaches, including investigating the issue from the Summer Bridge Program (SBP) participation perspective. This study employed a quantitative methodology involving causal-comparative design. It aimed to investigate if there was any difference in achievements between SBP participant (SBP-P) and SBP non-participant (SBP-NP) STEM majoring college minoritized students. Tinto's student integration theory was used as the theoretical underpinning for this research. Data was gathered on the instrument from 99 SBP-P and 179 SBP-NP. The Mann–Whitney U test yielded statistically significant results, Z = −12.79, p < .001, indicating significant differences in Freshman GPA among the groups. While Dunn–Bonferroni post-hoc test indicated no significant “within-group” differences, it revealed significant “between-group” differences– p = .00.