Your Journey

You will begin your journey at YVCC. You may hear about this program during a recruitment presentation made in one of your introductory level classes at YVCC or at a student group meeting, or you may see a flyer. After talking about the program with involved YVCC faculty, you apply to the Bridges Program as a freshman. You are assigned a peer mentor and a YVCC faculty mentor (Professors Shaw, Anderson, or Harves). At YVCC, you complete the courses relevant to your major while finishing your Direct Transfer Associate's degree. These courses fulfill some requirements for the anthropology, psychology, or biology degree and the PBE degree; additionally, you finish CWU’s general education requirements.

You enroll in a behavioral research class (PSY 299) under Dr. Shaw's guidance, where you learn how to use computer programs and other equipment to collect and analyze data. Credit earned in the research class counts toward requirements for the PBE degree (PRIM 320). While at YVCC, you hear lectures from, and meet with, visiting CWU faculty. You are in contact with your peer mentor and your YVCC faculty mentor every other week. Your YVCC faculty mentor guides your selection of coursework. During the first year you go to a job fair at the University of Washington and at CWU. You make several other visits to the CWU campus to attend conferences, participate in social activities, and meet with CWU faculty. In the spring you will attend an Observer workshop on the CWU campus.

The summer between your first and second year you complete the Summer Research Program at the Chimpanzee & Human Communication Institute on the CWU campus. In this program you learn observational research methods, more about how to use The Observer software and hardware, how to recognize and record chimpanzee behaviors, and about laboratory and husbandry procedures. You participate in data analysis and preparation of results for presentation or publication. You earn credit for one required PBE class (PRIM 220).

In your second year at YVCC, you will attend the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students and may present the results of your summer research. In addition you may present some of your research on the CWU campus. As you prepare to leave YVCC, you choose a faculty mentor (Drs Jensvold, Sheeran, or Sun) at CWU. By the time you complete your Direct Transfer Associate's degree, you have firm academic and social connections to CWU.

In the summer before your transfer, you complete the CWU transfer student orientation. With your peer mentor, you enroll in the Student Support Services and apply for financial aid. You find housing on or near the campus. In the next two years, you complete upper division course requirements at CWU and have additional opportunities to use The Observer software and for research at CHCI, as a zoo intern, or at the summer field school in China. You can receive a partial tuition waiver while at CWU.

By the time you complete the Bridges program, you have earned a Direct Transfer Associate's degree, a B.Sc. degree in PBE, and a B.A. or B.Sc. degree in anthropology, psychology, or biology. You have been trained to use state-of-the-art behavioral software and hardware. You have conducted research on several projects and have presented the results of your work at professional venues. You have used career fairs and other conferences to develop your post-baccalaureate prospects. Your success throughout the program and beyond is tracked as part of our evaluation of this Bridges project.