Successes and challenges of building a community through the Student Chemists Association at the college of New Jersey in an entirely virtual environment

Session: Successful Student Chapters:  

The College of New Jersey’s (TCNJ) Student Chemists Association (SCA) is an ACS student chapter that focuses on cultivating a kind community that is centered around chemistry-themed social events. Our members consist mainly of chemistry majors but our organization is open to all TCNJ students. In past years, we hosted exclusively in-person events including: biweekly meetings, ACS events, community outreach with local high schools, monthly “stressbusters”, and networking events. Our chapter has been recognized for our contributions to inclusive and welcoming programming, which has allowed us to build a strong sense of community in our department. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused us to shift to a fully virtual format. It challenged us to rethink how we can continue to build our community while we are entirely online and transitioning to new chapter advisors. The biggest challenge with this new format has been finding ways to create a personal, inclusive, non-formal atmosphere to allow all our members to get to know each other and build community. Online meetings are less personal due to decreased social interactions amongst members and this has been discouraging. After gaining new ideas and perspectives from our members and new chapter advisors, we were able to overcome the impersonal nature of online meetings. We found that the best solution for our chapter was to organize events that allowed for every attendee to actively participate and talk to one another in a game setting. Our “Among Us” game nights require that every person present to talk. This has created a conducive, inclusive space for new and old members to socialize and get to know one another. These game nights quickly became our most popular events and increased participation of members at our biweekly meetings and more formal, networking events. Creating events that set a foundation of inclusivity and fun is an essential part of building a successful online chemistry community.