For the past four years, the “Bridge to the Geosciences” program has provided opportunity to enrich the education of Citrus College students that focus their education in STEM: science, technology, engineering and math.
Over the course of the annual nine month program, the 20 selected applicants travel to four professional science centers. They are selected after completing an application, and interviewing with the program’s advisors.
The four locations the participants travel to are Oakcrest Institute of Science in Monrovia, Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, USC Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island and National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
These experiences are called “geo-modules,” which teach and demonstrate different aspects of the geosciences, while supervised and instructed by professional scientists.
“There are so many scientists out there that really want to contribute to the next generation of scientists”, said Marianne Smith, director of the Institute for Completion at Citrus College and a driving force behind the “Bridge” program’s existence. “They want to share their expertise and their love for what they do.”
The Institute exists to support the “College of Completion” initiative started in 2012.
“Geoscience is everything from the ocean, to space, to rocks, to the atmosphere, to environmental science,” Smith said. “It is a big, big field, and it doesn’t have a sufficient number of qualified workers.”
Smith said the goal of the “Bridge to the Geosciences” program is to introduce students to different areas of the geosciences so that they can see where their interests are best suited within the larger discipline of the geosciences.
“I loved ‘Bridge’. It was the best experience of my life,” former program participant and current Citrus College student Alexis Guardado, said. “I did something I didn’t think I was capable of doing.
Guardado also said what made “Bridge” so enjoyable was the hands-on experience, “and the fact that we were able to make our own research posters and end up presenting them with the rest of the summer research experience students.”
Smith said it is important that STEM students conduct research, but many students at the community college level have a difficult time securing research experience.
Smith said this reflects a problem facing some STEM students in their academic and professional careers, beyond the community college level; access to scientific research experience is often barred by a paradoxical question on the applications for such opportunities.
“We surveyed the programs that are out there, across the nation and they almost all ask, ‘What prior research experience do you have?’” Smith said.
This can act as a barrier to STEM students trying to gain access to their first research experience.
Smith continued that, as a solution to this problem, the Catalina and Boulder “geo-modules” offer the students an opportunity to conduct beginning-level scientific research.
Smith said the learning provided by the “Bridge to the Geosciences” program is experiential, or done outside the classroom. She added that students apply what they have learned in the classroom during their experiences with the program’s “geo-modules,” then take things they learn in the modules back to the classroom.
“Then they’ve had some experience and they have something to talk about.” Smith said.
Scientific research experience allows participating students to advance in academia or the professional sector, Smith said. However, the benefits of the program go beyond assisting students in their move to the university or professional level.
The program helps students identify the path they wish to take for their academic journey. Jocelyn Gonzalez can speak to this with first-hand experience. Gonzalez, biology major with a focus in environmental science, joined “Bridge” her first year at Citrus College.
“I was a little hesitant. I was a veterinary medicine major at first,” Gonzalez said, “This program actually made me change my major.
“It changes you a little bit, you go from being totally unhappy from where you’re at to now knowing where you’re going. It’s a nice road,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t think I would have ever considered environmental science without ‘Bridge’.”
Gonzalez is still taking classes at Citrus College, and said she recommends the program to all her friends at the school, many of which are STEM majors as well.
“STEM is not easy, it is a lot of sleepless nights,” Gonzalez said. “Sometimes you want to cry, but when you have your friends there with you and they’re pushing you and you see them as motivated as you are, you realize if they’re able to push through it, then so can I.”
The support received is not just from peers within the program. It comes from all those involved.
“There was a time where I didn’t believe that I could do it and I was struggling and Dr. Smith has always been there to push me like, ‘No, STEM is for you, you’ve tried so hard. You’re brilliant and smart,’” Guardado said.
Smith co-founded “Bridge to the Geosciences” after connecting with geologist Valerie Sloan. Sloan is the Director of the GEO Research Experience for Undergraduates Network at NCAR, where she organizes programs similar to Citrus’ “Bridge to the Geosciences” for universities nationwide. Smith and Sloan met at the American Geophysical Union annual conference, where Smith gave a talk about the importance of involving community college students in scientific research.
The two decided to work together on a project that could get students at the community college level interested in the atmospheric sciences, Smith said.
Smith, Sloan, and astrobiologist Laurie Barge of JPL secured a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that has provided funding for the ”Bridge to the Geosciences” program from 2015 to this current year. The initial grant was intended to last until 2018, however remaining funds from 2018 proved sufficient to allow the program one more year, said Smith.
The grant helps pay for the four trips the students take while participating in the program. The destinations are all scientific institutions, each hosting one of the “geo-modules” that Smith said are central to the program’s structure. Sloan and Barge, working for NCAR and JPL, respectively, were able to grant the program access to their employers’ facilities, opening the doors of professional science centers to community college STEM students, said Smith.
Given the cost of travel and the often-tight budgets of college students, the NSF grant allows the “Bridge to the Geosciences” to offer participating students educational opportunity without a price tag.
Those enrolled have their flight and accommodations paid for by the program’s NSF grant, Smith said.
