The effectiveness of precollege summer programs to influence African-American students' choice of college major

Precollege programs have not been researched sufficiently to determine the reasons for their success or failure. This study examined the effects of a mathematics, science, and engineering precollege summer program as an organizational mechanism that examines communication to maintain, reinforce, attract, educate, and promote minority individuals to select mathematics, science, or engineering as a college major.;An effective precollege program requires educating students through effective leadership, persuasion, and influence skills. From a communication perspective, this study applied research on leadership, persuasion, and influence to the educational setting, in order to provide understanding of how communication techniques enhanced the decision-making process of African American high school students when selecting a college major. It examined the influence of summer precollege programs as the mechanism that affects the career choice (major) a student selects in college. Also, within the boundaries of organizational and interpersonal communication, this study examined the ability of precollege program administrators to generate and transmit messages that gain the compliance of students, therefore influencing them to select engineering as a major.;The study determined that there are differences in the selected majors of (1) students who participate in a mathematics, science, and engineering summer work precollege program; (2) those who participate in a mathematics, science, and engineering precollege summer residential program; (3) those who participate in both programs; and (4) those who did not participate in either of the programs. It also determined that there is a direct relationship between interaction with a precollege program and favorable perceptions of mathematics, science, or engineering as a career.;In accordance with the above research questions, this study examined two activities, a mathematics, science, and engineering summer work program and a precollege residential academic enrichment program designed to reinforce, maintain, and expose students to mathematics, science, and engineering at the precollege level to determine their impact and influence on the students' perception of mathematics, science, or engineering as a major.