Meet the Societies’ Graduate Student Committee

The ASA, CSSA, and SSSA (ACS) Graduate Student Committee aims to support graduate members as they navigate their academic experience and promote graduate student membership, value, and involvement in the Societies. In the past years, the committee has been active on multiple fronts to reach its goals. Each year, during the spring and fall semesters, we design and host a webinar series with past topics including “Communicating Your Science 101,” “Level Up Your Career: From Grad Student to Employment,” “Navigating the Grad School Adventure,” and “Data Visualization.” The webinars are free for graduate members, and the recordings are available on the student pages of the Societies’ websites.1

In addition to our webinar series, we regularly host a networking session at the ACS Annual Meeting to help build our graduate members’ networks and networking skills. This event provides an excellent opportunity to connect graduate students and mentors from various fields such as industry, government, and academia. Come check it out at the meeting in Baltimore!

Additionally, we work to support students’ participation at the Annual Meeting. A 2018 SSSA member survey reported that the financial costs associated with attending the meeting was one of the major barriers to student attendance. To help provide a solution for our fellow graduate students, our committee created the Graduate Student Travel Scholarship. After raising funds for several years, we were thrilled to award the scholarship to the first 11 students last year. Currently, we are working to make the scholarship a permanent and endowed fund. To help with this effort, you can donate at: www.a-s-f.org/content/graduate-student-travel-scholarship/.

Finally, the ACS Graduate Student Committee helps design and host the Graduate Student Leadership Conference (GSLC) each year at the Annual Meeting. The GSLC provides opportunities to develop leadership skills through dedicated sessions including professionalism, leadership styles, communications, workplace etiquette, and ethics. The conference is also an occasion to network with other graduate students, Society leadership, and industry representatives.

The work done by the ACS Graduate Student Committee wouldn’t be possible without the continued efforts of our committee members, the constant support of Society staff liaisons Susan Chapman and Brigid Moran, the Agronomic Science Foundation, and our generous donors and sponsors.

For updates on graduate student events and opportunities, follow us on Twitter (@ACSGradStudents) and Facebook (ACS.gradstudents) and watch your emails!