Weber State University’s Envisioneering Summer Bridge Program is a tuition-free program for students in grades 10 through 12 and is a collaboration between the College of Engineering, Applied Science & Technology (College of EAST) and the Provost’s Office at WSU.

“From June through early August, students attend two classes on campus three days a week,” a university press release said. “Alongside coursework, they also participate in activities that introduce them to academic expectations, campus resources, and potential career paths in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).”

Yudi Lewis, executive director of Hispanic-Serving Institution Initiatives under the Provost’s Office, told the Standard-Examiner the program offers students more than a chance to be in the classroom for seven weeks.

“They also participate in career exploration field trips to connect what they’re learning in the classroom to the industry,” she said.

Lewis said she had originally developed the program during her time at Utah Valley University and it is now being duplicated at seven other schools across the country.

She said 20 students are part of the program, which is wrapping up this week, up from the 17 who participated in the pilot program last year. According to the press release, this year’s theme was “Fundamentals of Computing and Web Design and Usability” and included one course that was within the major and one course that fulfills general education requirements.

Alicia Christensen, director of outreach for the College of EAST, told the Standard-Examiner that very little needed to change between last year’s pilot program and this year’s incarnation.

“(Lewis) started this program at UVU several years ago, so she came with a lot of experience,” Christensen said. “Running the pilot program at Weber seemed like it ran really, really well.”

One thing she said the kids did more of his year was getting out of the classroom.

“We also wanted to create a greater sense of belonging on campus, so we tried to do more field trips around campus,” she said.

Additionally, Christensen said they moved classes to a classroom with better views than being in a basement, as was the case the first year, and they hired additional mentors.

“We did learn a lot last year,” she said. “It went really well last year so we just tried to do the same things that went well and include a few extra things that we feel like could be better.”

Lewis said the program is a huge benefit for area students.

“We want to make sure that the students have a great experience as they are exploring STEM — in this case, engineering — as a possible field of study,” she said. “The Envisioneering Summer Bridge Program is the first tuition-free program that Weber State offers for high school students. It’s an opportunity for us as a university to really be intentional about how is it that we are serving our community. This summer bridge program is not only impacting individual students who are coming to the classroom space, it’s also impacting their future and also their future generations.”

For more on the Envisioneering Summer Bridge Program visit https://www.weber.edu/eastoutreach/summer-bridge-weber/.