Award Category: Outstanding Performance by Local Section
Contact Person:
Name: Susan Shih
Address: 240 N Linden
Westmont, IL 60559
Phone: 630 942-2110
E-mail: shihsu@cdnet.cod.edu
Description of Activity/Program:
During 2002 the Chicago Section has been extremely active in a number of areas. We have improved current programs and added new ones. We have also made a number of changes administratively in order to better serve our members.
One of the first areas addressed was employment issues, a prime consideration in these times. The Section rejuvenated the Job Club, holding informal round tables preceding many of our monthly meetings. Lead by an Employment Committee member, chemists seeking employment network among themselves and with others, review resumes and job search strategies, and sometimes hear of possible openings. We instituted an online job discussion group open to any chemist seeking employment and companies with openings. Membership in the group has continued to grow through the year with much networking. There is a link to the group from our section home page. In addition we generated a list of area organizations that hire chemists. Any chemist seeking employment can request the list. We also published resumes and job openings on our web site.
Another career-focused activity was the workshop on Negotiating Techniques facilitated by Dorothy Rodmann of the ACS. This was very well attended and received.
A second area of emphasis has been outreach to the community at large, to specific groups and to other professional organizations. Chemistry Day was extremely successful again this year drawing over 1000 attendees and made possible by more than 100 volunteers. Hosted by the University of Illinois Chicago, Chemistry Day offered many activities from lectures to demonstrations to hands-on experiments. Many industrial, governmental and educational organizations took part in the exhibition there. Earlier in the year, we participated in the DuPage Area Engineering Week program with a hands-on activity as well as demonstrations.
We have been active in both career fairs and in mentoring activities, especially those involving young women and minorities. The career fairs have been at area community colleges as well as high schools. Mentoring was an ongoing project at all levels; mentoring of new Section members, of graduate and undergraduate students, of high school students. New members receive a packet of introductory materials including a coupon for a free dinner at one of the monthly meetings and an invitation to match them up with an experienced Section member if they so desire. All students, high school through graduate school, receive a 50% discount on dinners at all Section monthly meetings. A very new project begun this fall is mentoring of students at the Young Women's Charter School of Chicago. These young women are predominantly minority and economically disadvantaged and we are working with them in conjunction with other professional scientific organizations. Two Section members attended the Mentoring Workshop sponsored by National this fall.
With our web page and ties with other organizations, we were able to widely publicize activities of the Section and of other groups including Student Affiliates and the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois. Some of these groups had booths at Chemistry Day and we had booths at some of their activities.
Education has always been a primary concern in the Section and this past year was no exception. "ChemShorts for Kids" continued to be a popular feature, published monthly in the Chemical Bulletin and on our web site. A new program involving high school students earning service learning hours by teaching some fun chemistry to a group of pre-kindergarten children was very successful and is ongoing. Five high school students and 40 children participated in this program which we hope to expand in the future.
40 high school teachers attended a technology workshop sponsored by our High School Education Committee where they learned how to use computerized data acquisition and analysis in experimentation. Many high school students participated in the Chemistry Olympiad and took our scholarship exam. The Section gave out scholarships totaling $13,250 to the top students taking the exam. Some of our Project SEED students presented posters on their research at the Boston meeting with the Section paying their expenses.
In 2002 we had an emphasis on Green Chemistry that has generated some unexpected results. Dr. Dennis Hjeresen of the Green Chemistry Institute was the main speaker at our Public Affairs meeting in March. The Topical Group presentation at that meeting also focused on Green Chemistry. Two attendees, one a Section member, were inspired by that evening to organize a teachers' workshop on Green Chemistry which was hosted by Ondeo-Nalco and drew over 75 high school and college teachers. Presentations were made by Dr. Hjeresen and Dr. Mary Kirchhoff of the Green Chemistry Institute as well as by four winners of the Presidential Green Chemistry Award. Both groups of teachers have continued to meet and discuss ways to integrate Green Chemistry into their respective curricula. Chemistry Day also featured a presentation by Dr. Kirchhoff on "Green Chemistry: A Greener Clean". Later in the year, our Stieglitz lecturer, Dr. Patrick Gruber of Cargill Dow, addressed the Section on a specific industrial application of Green Chemistry. Some new people have drawn in and become involved in Section activities because of this emphasis.
Our primary activity related to governmental affairs was the submission of questions on public policy issues to the candidates running for Governor and U.S. Senator. Information was received from only two of the candidates but it was posted on our web site and published in the Chemical Bulletin.
Our Public Relations Committee reorganized this fall and developed a PR plan for use in 2003. This should facilitate better media publicity for Section activities.
Another area of reorganization involved the re-opening of the Section office with a part time employee. This has resulted in better access to information for our members, more timely responses to questions and a more uniform handling of office affairs. At the same time, the Section switched from an academic to a calendar year, necessitating changes in many areas. We completed the revision of our Bylaws and Policy Declarations to reflect this calendar change.
Further details on these activities are available elsewhere in the Annual Report. The Section is proud of all that it has accomplished this past year through the efforts of its volunteers. We hope to continue this service to our Members and the community at large in 2003.
Please provide a 2-3 sentence abstract that describes your activity.
ChemLuminary Awards on September 9, 2003 at the Fall National Meeting in New York City.
The Chicago Section has had a very productive year in 2002, continuing and improving many well-established programs while implementing several new and exciting ones. Our employment aids services have been greatly expanded, our mentoring services have grown, and our outreach to the community at large has continued. In addition, we have improved the access that members have to our services.
