Elizabethtown College Chapter of the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society Wins Award

The Elizabethtown College chapter of the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society (ACS) recently won an ACS Commendable Student Communities Award for their dedicated work during the 2023-24 school year.

The ACS presents the honor yearly to ACS Student Chapters across the United States who have shown dedication to their chapter and community through their events and activities.

Members of Etown’s chapter of the Students Affiliates of the American Chemical Society at their annual pie-a-professor fundraiser.

“It means a lot to us to earn the award,” Elizabethtown College Chemistry major Ryan Smith ’25 said. “Our club put in a lot of effort last year to try to make the semesters as enjoyable as possible for our members.”

Student chapters of the ACS have three main purposes: social, outreach, and professional. The club hosts and organizes many events to meet these goals, including bonding over sand volleyball with chemistry faculty members, events for National Chemistry Week, Trunk-or-Treat, an Easter egg hunt, and a Chemistry Department trip to Shady Maple Smorgasbord. The club also helps to partially fund a biannual trip to the ACS Conference, which took place in New Orleans, La. in the spring of 2024.

“The most impactful support we get is from our department faculty,” Smith said. “The relationships that we have fostered with our professors make it easy to ask them to participate in our events, even if that means asking them to get pied in the face as a fundraiser for our club.”

The Etown chapter of the Student Affiliates of the ACS is advised by Elizabethtown College A.C. Baugher Professor of Chemistry, James MacKay. The 2023-24 school year was MacKay’s first year advising the club.

“Chemistry is a tough major and a hard subject, but it was and is because of the Chemistry Club that we can show how chemistry can be really fun and engaging as well,” MacKay said. “Our students that lean into these activities are learning great leadership skills and engaging the next generation with the beauty and power of Chemistry!”