The Emerging Ethnic Engineers Summer Bridge Program ended on August 4th after seven weeks of hard work by twenty-four incoming freshman at the University of Cincinnati. The Summer Bridge Program, sponsored by Emerging Ethnic Engineers (E3) in the College of Engineering, is a seven week, residential program for under-represented freshman. Students spent their days taking classes in calculus, chemistry, English and physics, as well as attending mandatory, daily study sessions from 6:00-9:00. Students who passed English will receive advance standing in English this fall.

The Celebration Luncheon, held in the alumni center, recognized the students for the hard work they have done over the summer. Kenneth Simonson, Director of the E3 program, Dr. Anthony Perzigian, Senior Vice President and Provost of the University of Cincinnati and Dean of Engineering, Carlo Montemagno spoke, welcoming the students and their parents, praising the students for all their hard work and thanking the parents for the hard work they did in raising such great students. Mr. Robert Crosby (EE 57') a member of the first graduating class of African American students from the College of Engineering was a special guest at the luncheon. After lunch the students performed skits, giving their parents and guests a lighthearted view of what it is like to be a student in the Summer Bridge Program.

William Morton and Desauna Tabor shared essays about their experiences in the Summer Bridge Program. Each student received a certificate of completion and some received special awards for their hard work. The NIA Award recognized students who embraced the concept of "purpose", one of the seven principals of KWANZA. The recipients of the NIA award were William Morton and Andrew Winfree. The award for Best Effort recognizes those students who best exemplified the philosophy of cooperative learning in their classes. In English the award went to Desauna Tabor and Dustin Muller, in calculus Whitney Davis and Chad Ware, in chemistry Rajina Eskridge and Desauna Tabor and in physics Davetta Anderson and Justin Gaudiello.

Dr. Cheryll Dunn gave the closing remarks, encouraging the students to continue building on the foundation they started this summer. Engineering students who completed the program will receive a $3,000 scholarship from the College of Engineering during their freshman year. They will also be able to keep their books from the program to use during their freshman and sophomore years.

The Emerging Ethnic Engineers Program is an academic program that seeks to increase the numbers of underrepresented students (African American, Hispanic/Latino and Native America) who enroll and graduate from the College of Engineering.

Story by Jennie Dorl
Photos by Katie Hageman