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Increasing Diversity of Computing Course Participation Using a Summer Bridge Program

Published: 15 March 2024 Publication History

Abstract

For many underrepresented groups, attending a large university and immediately being able to acclimate and succeed is a tall task. Many students come to campus interested in computing but do not have the prior experience to know what path they want to take or have the necessary content knowledge to feel capable of taking on their first computing course. Additionally, without prior experience in computing, knowing how to select a specific computing major and career is difficult to do while already feeling behind. The Break Through Tech Guild program at the University of Maryland is a summer bridge program that is a key part of a national initiative to close the gender gap in computing majors on large university campuses. This specific program runs prior to the start of the semester for one week at a time. In the past three years, the program has served over 200 students from countless different majors and backgrounds, with the explicit goal of giving them the tools and community to be able to succeed in Computing. Students learn core coding concepts from a Computer Science instructor, tackle a real-world design problem, and explore careers in tech both through mentorship from industry professionals and from the campus. We have noticed significant amounts of students have continued to computing courses after the program.

References

[1]
Accenture, (2020) Resetting Tech Culture www.accenture.cn/content/dam/accenture/final/a-com-migration/pdf/pdf-134/accenture-a4-gwc-report-final1.pdf.
[2]
Bunderson, E. D., & Christensen, M. E. (1995). An analysis of retention problems for female students in university computer science programs. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 28(1), 1--18.

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  1. Increasing Diversity of Computing Course Participation Using a Summer Bridge Program

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    SIGCSE 2024: Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2
    March 2024
    2007 pages
    ISBN:9798400704246
    DOI:10.1145/3626253
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    New York, NY, United States

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    Published: 15 March 2024

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    Author Tags

    1. collaborative learning
    2. diversity
    3. increasing access
    4. introductory
    5. summer bridge

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