Successes and Lessons in Year 4 of an S-STEM Summer Sophomore Bridge during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Louisiana Tech University has completed its fourth year of an S-STEM Scholarship Program to serve as a Sophomore Bridge for engineering majors. The Fast-Forward Scholarship program supports engineering majors in the summer between their first and second years to take one engineering and one mathematics course, along with a professional development (PD) course that includes opportunities to visit regional companies employing engineers. The purpose of the program is to provide students with scholarships and support while they have a gentler transition into more challenging sophomore engineering and mathematics coursework. Additionally, completing this coursework early allows for more enriching experiences later in the curriculum, such as minors, internships, and undergraduate research. The first cohort of Fast-Forward students from Summer 2017 have now had sufficient time to achieve a four-year graduation, while the second cohort from Summer 2018 would now be enrolled in senior design coursework if they remained in engineering and on-track in their degree plans. This poster will examine the on-track success for both of these cohorts and the four-year graduation rates of the first cohort. Additionally, the fourth year of running the program in Summer 2020 saw significant changes due to COVID-19. This poster will describe the program changes and challenges that existed in offering the program in a purely online environment. Recognizing the potential for a Summer 2021 program in an online or hybrid environment, we will summarize lessons learned from the 2020 experience. The Fast-Forward project is continuing to support the training of other students, even beyond the participants. In addition to the Industrial/Organizational Psychology graduate students involved in the project, an undergraduate mathematics major has joined the team for her senior research capstone project. To investigate institutional sustainability of the project post-funding, a team of graduate students is presently looking at the student outcomes and financial aspects of the Fast-Forward program, as part of their Six Sigma Black Belt certification from Louisiana Tech University.