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This year, the program helped about 200 students from families with lower socioeconomic status or under-resourced schools.
This fall, Tahmir Murphy will leave her hometown of Manchester, Connecticut, to study bioengineering at Northeastern University’s Boston campus.
After earning her degree, her dream is to make life-saving vaccines more accessible to underserved countries and communities.
She’s already taking her first steps toward that goal as part of Northeastern’s 2024 Summer Bridge Scholars Program.
The award-winning program helps first-generation college students — or students from families with lower socioeconomic status or under-resourced schools — successfully continue their academic journeys.
Murphy is the first person in her family to attend college. Last week, she was joined on campus by nearly 200 first-year Northeastern students with similar backgrounds.
The future Huskies got a preview of the academic experience, while connecting with faculty, staff and current students through engaging programming that included team building, leadership development, group activities and more.
“I’m really excited,” Murphy says. “My plan was always to go to college. I’ve always liked to learn.”
Bridge program organizers added duck boat tours this year to help the students become acquainted with the city of Boston, as well as breakout sessions with their individual colleges.
“This group of students is mirroring the uniqueness and ingenuity that will show up in this year’s incoming class,” says Martin Dias, one of the program’s organizing committee members and an associate teaching professor of supply chain and information management at Northeastern.
The students demonstrated they are intellectually curious, Dias says, as well as professional, mature and eager to embrace the future.
“All the things that we want a Husky to represent are certainly in this group,” he says.
Murphy was introduced to the world of engineering by her “big sister” — from the Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization in Connecticut — who took her to a General Electric facility where she worked on plane engines.
“Her success in life made her really want to give back to her own community, and that’s something I want to do for myself,” Murphy says.
She chose Northeastern because of its rigorous engineering program, diverse student body, service-learning opportunities and Dialogue of Civilizations program.
Peer mentors — current Northeastern students who went through the Bridge program — were there to support the newcomers and answer any of their questions.
Nasyve Beech, one of the peer mentors to the 2024 Summer Bridge scholars and a rising fourth-year student studying politics, philosophy and economics, says he learns every time as much as new students.
The relationships he made, he says, will continue into the school year.
“I gave them my number and my Instagram,” Beech says. “I said, ‘Please text me if you guys have any questions, even if you’ve had a bad day and just want to yell into the void.’ I love these kids.”
It was beautiful, Beech says, to watch 10 individuals get much closer and develop friendships in just a week.
Murphy’s mentor took the group on a campus tour — including his favorite study spot — and the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute. That was helpful, Murphy says, making her feel more at home.
“I’ve already met four or five people who I feel like I’m really close to,” Murphy says. “And we’ve gotten closer by sharing our experience with each other.”