Standing in front of a research poster at California State University, East Bay’s Braddock Center for Science and Innovation, a group of community college students explained their surveying project to a room full of industry professionals, faculty, and fellow students. Their poster bore the logos of CSUEB’s School of Engineering, Growth Sector, and EDAP — and their names: Tariq Salam, Reni Gastelum, Saudi Rustas, and Cong Thanh Dang.
Eight weeks earlier, they were interns.
These students entered the Engineering Degree Apprenticeship Pathway (EDAP) through Contra Costa College and Diablo Valley College — two of the East Bay institutions anchoring a regional model that is redefining who gets to build California’s infrastructure. EDAP begins with a stipended summer bridge that introduces students to civil and transportation engineering fundamentals before they’ve completed a single college unit. From there, students move through contextualized community college coursework with intensive academic and career supports, then into mentored work-based learning placements with employer partners — including Caltrans — where they gain the hands-on experience and professional networks that were once out of reach.
The pathway doesn’t stop at community college. EDAP is designed to carry students through transfer to four-year institutions like CSUEB and into fully registered apprenticeship roles — with graduate-level progression on the horizon for some pathways.
As Dean Drew Douglas, Senior Dean of Workforce and Economic Development at Contra Costa Community College District, described it: “EDAP has become a model for an equity-centered, industry-aligned pipeline — students begin in a stipended summer bridge, progress through contextualized community college coursework with intensive supports, transition into mentored work-based learning with transportation and civil engineering partners, and then continue to four-year institutions.”
The program was launched with the Building Pathways for Infrastructure Jobs (BPIJ) grant through the Workforce Development Board of Contra Costa County (WDBCCC) in partnership with Growth Sector. A more recent CAI grant — one of the most competitive workforce grants written for this region — has now institutionalized EDAP at Contra Costa College and is supporting expansion to Diablo Valley College to meet growing employer demand, especially from Caltrans and transportation engineering partners.
For students like those who presented at the CSUEB celebration, EDAP didn’t just open a door to a career — it showed them the door existed.
Partners: Contra Costa College | Diablo Valley College | CSUEB | Caltrans | Growth Sector | WDBCCC
Funding: BPIJ Grant | CAI Grant (4CD)