The American Chemical Society (AChemS) is a student-led organization that aims to get more students interested in chemistry. AChemS allows students an opportunity to try exciting and innovative experiments and provides students with a head start in the field of chemistry in an engaging and intellectual environment.
AChemS has meetings once a month in room B308 at the high school and is available for students from all grade levels to join. In each meeting, students learn about and test new experiments in a laid-back setting.
“The meetings are super fun because you don’t need to be an expert on chemistry,” junior Ariana Chen said. “You still get to try experiments and learn about the science behind them.”
AChemS has research conferences, publishes journals and databases, and provides careers and education in the scientific field to all ages.
“I had been interested in Chemistry since my freshman year, and after taking my first year of chemistry and halfway into my second year, I realized that my favorite parts were the experiments,” AChemS leader, junior Jiya Sharma, said. “We really wanted to share this interest with other students who enjoyed science.”
AChemS members and leaders have many aspirations for the club. AChemS hopes to allow all students to deepen their knowledge of chemistry.
Students interested can also choose to compete in the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad, a competition designed to stimulate and promote high school chemistry achievement, sponsored by the American Chemical Society. Students can participate in any stage of the competition. The Olympiad provides outlets to challenge their chemistry knowledge and connect with like-minded peers and national and international chemistry communities.
“Though sometimes chemistry can be challenging, we wanted to provide an outlet where it’s not only fun but also cool to learn about,” Sharma said. “We hope that anyone who comes to our meetings either discovers a newfound interest in chemistry or builds up the one they already have. But mainly, we want everyone to have a fun time doing fun experiments and for them to learn about various topics in chemistry.”
