NNJ – B2B

This program assists underrepresented minority students in successfully transferring to a STEM Bachelor’s degree program.

About Us

Overview: The Northern New Jersey Bridges to the Baccalaureate (NNJ-B2B) Alliance is a partnership of five, public, associate-degree granting, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) in northern New Jersey committed to assisting more than 900 underrepresented minority students in successfully transferring into a baccalaureate STEM degree program. The partner colleges will include Passaic County Community College (lead applicant), Bergen Community College, Hudson County Community College, Middlesex County College, and Union County College.

 NNJ-B2B will form a synergistic partnership with the GS-LSAMP, a highly successful NSF-funded project headed by Rutgers University-Newark and including eight largely public four-year colleges and universities in the region to develop a transformative model for streamlined transitions from 2- to 4-year institutions. As part of this project, GS-LSAMP will share with the community colleges a minimum of five high-impact practices that have proven effective in engaging underrepresented minority students in their STEM learning. In fact, using these practices, GS-LSAMP met its 5-year goal of doubling the number of underrepresented minority students earning baccalaureate STEM degrees in only 4 years.

 The high-impact practices include undergraduate research, peer-led team learning (PLTL), Math Bridge programs (including online enrichment), peer mentoring both within the institution and to the GS-LSAMP institutions, and career and transfer seminars both internally and GS-LSAMP hosted. Each of the partner colleges will replicate the five high-impact practices on their respective campuses. As a result of the project activities, over the 3-year project period, the partners will increase the enrollment of underrepresented minority students in STEM by 10 percent across the Alliance (from 3,834 to 4,217); increase the 1-year retention rate of underrepresented minority students from 60 to 65 percent; and ensure that at least 900 underrepresented minority students successfully transfer into baccalaureate STEM degree program, greatly exceeding the current level of transfers.