The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative case study design was to investigate whether a summer bridge program, developed for first-year, first-generation students, is effective in retaining students throughout the first year of college. The general problem for private and public institutions was that student college retention rates have decreased since 2000 (LeBlanc & Slaughter, 2012). Data collection for the study included 60 first-year, first-generation students, within the Wings Program, who attended the summer bridge program before the 2017-2018 academic school year. The study sample also included six Wings' instructors, who presented content within the summer bridge program. I included a curriculum content analysis because I gathered information about the content, curriculum, and materials presented in the Wings summer bridge program. Six themes emerged from the surveys/questionnaires, which aligned with the overarching research question and the literature to affirm that a university's inclusion of a summer bridge program, before the start of an academic school year, can motivate first-year, first-generation students to retain during the first year of college. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]