Walter Soto never thought he’d attend a four-year school, let alone get a baccalaureate degree.

That changed in 2001, when Soto, a Dutchess Community College science student, heard about a new Purchase College program called Bridges to Baccalaureate. Soto, who moved to the U.S. from Costa Rica a few years before, was intrigued enough to become one of the fledgling program’s first six students. He graduated in 2003 and is now an air control specialist for Dynergy, Inc.

“The (Bridges) program was absolutely crucial for me in getting my degree,” said Soto, the first college graduate in his family. “I never had a four-year degree in mind for many reasons, one of them being I had no idea how to move from a two-year to a four-year school.”

SHARING SUCCESS

The Bridges program, established and led by Purchase UUPer Joe Skrivanek, has logged hundreds of similar success stories since opening its doors to underrepresented students nine years ago. Since then, 70 percent of the program’s nearly 300 students have earned bachelor’s degrees in the science fields—compared to 17 percent of transfer students nationally. One third of Bridges students are in or have completed graduate school, studying STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) specialties.

Such success has not gone unnoticed by SUNY’s Office of Diversity & Educational Equity, which chose Purchase’s Bridges program as a model for a new SUNY-wide program to attract underrepresented students to the sciences; it’s set to launch in 2013.

There is interest in taking Bridges statewide. More than 100 people, including SUNY officials and representatives from 12 four-year SUNY schools and 11 community colleges, met in Albany in November to discuss the initiative. The new program would be funded by grants; a second meeting is set for spring 2011, according to Skrivanek.

“This makes sense for SUNY and for Maritime,” said UUPer Tardis Johnson, associate dean of students at Maritime. “Community colleges are our feeder schools and we have to work with them and SUNY so we can say `if you want to succeed academically, this is how we can do it.’”

“Our society needs to educate students in science, math and engineering and we have fallen behind,” said UUPer Maria Pacheco, a Buffalo State associate chemistry professor. “A program like this makes sense.”

REACHING OUT

Skrivanek’s concern about Purchase’s falling science enrollment spurred his interest in Bridges, a program created by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1992. Skrivanek, Purchase’s dean of natural sciences at the time, wanted to boost the college’s science enrollment and attract more African American, Latino and other underrepresented students to the STEM fields, he said.

He fostered relationships with science programs at several area community colleges, which helped him obtain a $600,000 grant through NIH to set up a Purchase’s Bridges program. Purchase has partnerships with six regional community colleges: Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and Westchester, Skrivanek said.

The NIH has 38 Bridges programs in the U.S., including at Binghamton and Stony Brook universities. SUNY chose to emulate Purchase’s program because it’s one of the most successful Bridges programs nationwide, SUNY officials said.

“A lot of what prevents community college students from moving ahead is not having the confidence to think they can make it and understanding that education is as important as work,” said UUPer Erin Ott, who works with Bridges students as coordinator of Purchase’s Office of Student Support Services. “I think this program has a great chance of working,”

OTHER BRIDGES

The Stony Brook and Binghamton Bridges programs have also been successful.

Since its start in 1999, the Binghamton program has attracted 211 community college students to study biomedical and behavioral sciences at public and private four-year schools. Bridges students at Binghamton account for almost all of the underrepresented transfer students at the university studying biology and science; 94 percent of those students earn their baccalaureate degree, said Binghamton UUPer and program director Anna Tan-Wilson.

Nearly 400 underrepresented students have taken part in Stony Brook’s Bridges program since its start 18 years ago, said UUPer and program director Dan Moloney.

The program, called BioPREP (Biology Participation in Research and Education Program) has helped about 75 percent of those students get their bachelor’s degree in a science discipline. Of those, 30 percent go on to graduate school to earn advanced science and biomedical degrees, he said.

EARNING DEGREES, CHANGING LIVES

To be accepted into Purchase’s Bridges program, students must have a minimum 2.8 grade point average and write an essay about their aspirations for a career in the natural sciences.

There are no income restrictions; often, Bridges students receive part or full scholarships to pay for school. Last year, 50 students participated in the program.

Said Skrivanek: “The students who come into the (Bridges) program aren’t sure if they want to go on after getting their two-year degree, but we turn around about 90 percent of those students.”

Much of that is due to Bridges’ summer research program, where community college students work eight hours a day, five days a week on a research project with a professor from Purchase or one of the community colleges. The students, who get a stipend for their research, learn about the sciences, and often realize that a four-year degree is within reach, he said.

Bridges also walks them through the college application process and keeps in touch with them over the next two years—whether they attend Purchase or another school, Ott said.

More than 40 percent of Bridges students earn their baccalaureate degrees at Purchase. Others transfer to SUNY schools such as Stony Brook, Binghamton and New Paltz, which is where Soto earned his degree; he attended Purchase but transferred to New Paltz because the commute was shorter, he said.

It doesn’t matter where Bridges students go to college. What’s important is that they earn their degree, which for people like Soto, can be a life-changing event.

“I realized that my goal could be extended from a two-year degree to a four-year degree, that I could look forward to a different dimension in my life goals,” Soto said. “Because of Bridges, it didn’t have to be about getting a two-year degree and finding a job.”

— Michael Lisi