Abstract:
This thesis describes the effect of the Student Transition Empowerment Program (STEP),
a summer bridge program at George Mason University during the summer of 2014.
Research is done in a case-study format, collecting interview data from six first-generational
Latino/a college students participating in the program. The data is collected
over the course of three interviews per participant, starting at the beginning of the
program, the end of the program, and within the middle of their first semester. In the
process of researching and writing this thesis, the author conducted a literature search and
reviews research about summer bridge programs and mentoring relationships,
highlighting trends from the literature to themes discovered through interviewing the
participants. This thesis is slated to be a reference and resource for higher education
institutions conducting their summer bridge programs in order to gauge the early effects
on first-generation college students.
