SANTA MONICA—The world’s largest scientific society, American Chemical Society, recognized Santa Monica College for the second year in a row. The American Chemical Society presented its highest student honor, the “Outstanding” award to SMC at the ACS National Meeting in Orlando, Florida on March 31.
SMC’s student chemistry club was one of 69 student chapters to be selected from 400 chapters nationwide. Santa Monica’s chapter was one of the 72 schools recognized for its promotion in “green chemistry” is also known as ACS’s “Green Chapter.” The Green Chapter award is given to students who have shown outstanding commitment to incorporating green chemistry into their annual activities.
According to SMC school officials, SMC was the only community college student-run club in the state of California to receive the American Chemical Society’s “Outstanding” award for the second consecutive year.
The president of the American Chemical Society, Peter K. Dorhout Ph.D. commended the chemistry club’s faculty advisors Jennifer Hsieh and Travis Pecorelli for “setting such a fine example for other chapters and being exemplary chemistry ambassadors!” Dorhout wrote in a letter, “few faculty members are willing to make the great commitment of time and energy that a successful chapter requires.”
Santa Monica College’s activities that were responsible for the college winning the award included community outreach programs and professional development events. One of those activities included participation in the CREST (Childcare, Recreation, Enrichment, Sports, Together) program at Santa Monica’s Will Rogers and Grant Elementary schools. Students at the school led school children in hands-on science experiments. One of the experiments conducted was a project that involved extracting DNA from strawberries and exploring the non-Newtonian properties of Oobleck (cornstarch and water slurry).
Other colleges in the state of California receiving the “Outstanding” award from ACS this year included UC San Diego, UC Riverside, and UC Davis. Several colleges throughout the state received an award for ACS’s Green Chapter. Green Chapter awards were given to Pasadena College, California State University Northridge, Humboldt State University, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Davis.
