UCF Chemistry Hosts First Conclave
On Saturday, April 2, 2016, the American Chemical Society (ACS) Central Florida Student chapters at UCF, Rollins, Stetson, and FIT hosted the first annual American Chemical Society Florida Chemistry Conclave (ACSFCC) at the UCF Orlando main campus.
The Conclave was a free, one-day, professional-development workshop. Students from across the state gathered in Orlando for a day filled with research, networking, volunteering, and fun!
By attending, students had the opportunity to network with Orlando chemistry professionals and Florida undergraduates, while giving back to the community and engaging in professional workshops.
The Conclave had a total of 62 professionals, professors, and students in attendance. 9 schools were represented: Lake Sumter State College, UF, UCF, FSU, Eastern Florida, Stetson, Rollins, FIT, and Florida Southern College.
The Conclave included free lunch and refreshments, networking with working chemists, student-research presentations, information about chemistry grad-studies, a family-feud style chemistry competition, a fun paper-recycling outreach event and much more.
Associate Professor of Chemistry, Stephen Kuebler, Ph.D., was excited for this first-time event and believes it had a great impact and “helped chemistry students across Florida make connections, develop their professional skills, and think about their future careers.”
The theme for the first annual ACSFCC was, “Where Chemistry Abounds.” There were 11 student presentations from UF, FSU, UCF, FIT, and Stetson, that were very well received and members from the ACS Orlando section in attendance, such as president elect Luke Roberson and our guest speaker Bob Rolle, Ph.D., commented on the excellent caliber of the research.
Organizer and leader of this event, Lauren Gandy stated how “…the post-surveys coming in from our attendees indicated the student presentations and Family Feud style competition were our most popular events, although all events for the Conclave were highly rated.”
This workshop was co-sponsored by UCF Chemistry, UCF College of Sciences, UCF Graduate College, Stetson University, the Orlando Section of the ACS, and an “Inter-Chapter Relations Grant” from the national ACS.