The Kent State University Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society began in September with the goal of bringing the chemistry department together.

“I’m a [teaching assistant], and I see a lot of my chemistry major students who don’t have an identity here,” said chapter president Sonya Adas. “When you decide to major in chemistry as a freshman undergrad, you should know that this building is where you belong.”

Adas, graduate chemistry student, said she got the idea to bring SAACS to Kent State from a professor, who is involved in a professional chapter in Akron.

Adas had a good experience with the society during her undergraduate career, and said she was happy to become involved again and to give Kent State chemistry students that same opportunity.

One of the goals of SAACS is to advocate for chemistry within the community.

“Especially promoting chemistry to children and people who may eventually become scientists themselves [is important],” said sophomore member Mary Waddington. “There’s a really huge stigma about it.”

Waddington decided to join the new chapter because of her involvement in her high school chemistry club.

“I wanted to try and get as involved in the chemistry department as I could,” Waddington said. “And I know I want to go to graduate school, so I wanted to get as involved with undergraduate research as I could.”

Justin Robinson, senior chemistry and molecular biology majors, said he became interested in SAACS because he was looking for a way to network within the chemistry department.

“I recently started doing research,” Robinson said, “so I figured this would also give me another way to get everything out of the chemistry department that I possibly could.”

Contact Erin England at [email protected].