Student volunteers guiding
experiments at Family Science Night
Undergraduate Research Conference
at St. Mary's College
at St. Mary's College
Student Affairs
During
2009, the Student Affairs Committee was involved in the following
activities:
1. Undergraduate Research Conference
The
annual undergraduate research conference was held in May of
2009 at St.
Mary’s College (Moraga, CA). More than 150
students and faculty attended the conference, which featured numerous
poster and oral presentations. Many
students from our Section (Santa Clara
University, San José State University, Stanford, and U.C. Santa
Cruz) attended
and gave presentations at the conference.
The SCU Chemistry Club lent St. Mary’s the poster boards used
for the
poster session. I interfaced with Steve
Bachofer, my counterpart in the California Section, to arrange for a
one-time
waiver to allow Sacramento State University to hold the conference in
May of
2010. During the past year I have
provided information and advice to the conference organizers at
Sacramento State; the
conference is slated to resume its usual rotation (between the
California and
Santa Clara Valley Sections) in 2011.
2. Santa
Clara University Chemistry Club Wins Award
One
of our student member chapters (Santa Clara University (SCU)) was once
again
recognized by the National office; this student group earned a
Commendable
Chapter award for their work in the 2008-2009 academic year, the 17th
consecutive award for this chapter. The
SCV section is particularly proud of the hard work done by the students
in each
of our student chapters; each group was involved in a wide variety of
activities and provided support to the Section, their departments, and
the
community. I also continue to serve as
Faculty Advisor to the SCU student group.
In Fall of 2009 the students submitted an abstract for
the Spring
2010 ACS meeting in San Francisco and are currently at work preparing
their
poster for the Successful Chapter session at Sci Mix.
I sent out inquiries in the Fall of 2009 to try to round up
students to work at the San Francisco ACS meeting.
3. Student
Participation
in
Chemistry-Related
Events
a.
The Section continued to welcome student members to its monthly
dinner
meetings; students from schools such as San José State University,
Santa Clara University, and UC Santa Cruz, as well as Cañada
College
(a Community College, located in Redwood City, CA) were treated to
dinners followed by interesting chemistry-related
seminars. Sally Peters, who oversees
most of the planning associated with the monthly meetings, has been the
point
person for sending out the call for students.
b.
NCW: student members assisted the Section with its participation
in National
Chemistry Week activities. For example, approximately 40
student volunteers
from Santa Clara University and San José State assisted at the Martin Luther
King event in San José. See the NCW Report for
photos.
c.
Family Science Night:
student members from Stanford as well as Santa Clara University
assisted
the Santa Clara and California Sections at a Family Science Night in
Colma;
this evening event featured hands-on science demonstrations running
simultaneously in several rooms at the school. The
event
had
a
huge
turnout and was a great
deal of fun for the participants and the volunteers.
Respectfully
submitted,
Linda
S. Brunauer
Student
Affairs Committee Chair