Editor's Notes
Greetings Penn State Chemistry!
Earlier this month we celebrated our newest Penn State Chemistry alumni, the Class of 2023. I had the opportunity to take photos at the commencement reception where the new graduates were honored by our faculty and shared their future plans. Many of these graduates will be moving across the country to continue their education in renowned chemistry graduate programs and others will enter into industry positions. We look forward to seeing all the great things they will accomplish in these new endeavors!
This edition of the newsletter includes the Hodges Group Lab Profile, department happenings, a message from the Department Head and the GSA, Chemistry Safety Insights, and Jackie Bortiatynski's Teaching Corner.
If you wish to have a story shared in a future newsletter, please contact me at chemcommunications@psu.edu.
Kathryn Harlow, Communications Coordinator
A Message from the Department Head
Inclusion and Belonging
(written with GSA President Mary Kate Caucci)
Continuing with President Bendapudi’s Vision for Penn State, her fourth goal is “Foster diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.” I had the pleasure of sitting down with GSA president Mary Kate Caucci to discuss these topics and to write this piece together.
One of the founding goals of the Chemistry Graduate Student Association (GSA) is to foster community within our department. Strengthening the inclusion and belonging of our department’s students, faculty, and staff should be considered essential features in the intent of accomplishing such a goal. With not only a variety of scientific interests in our department, but also a diversity of cultures, backgrounds, languages, nationalities, and more, we aim to come together to create shared experiences both amongst our department’s members and the broader Penn State community. We approach developing a sense of belonging through hosting many events to bring everyone beyond their labs and offices for coffee breaks, happy hours, trivia nights, hikes, picnics, and movies! A staple of cultivating Penn State pride are the GSA tailgates that have been held for every football game and are open to all current and alumni friends of chemistry. It is a great way to bond with others and learn about the needs of our department.
As our department strives to embrace inclusivity of its members, the GSA has initiated strategies to encourage involvement. There are organized carpools to maintain equitable access to these occasions because we know many students rely on public transit when certain events are not held on campus. Recently, the GSA arranged to have a representative within each lab group to better ensure awareness for all department events. This year the GSA has been developing a new DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) representative role as we continue to make our department an inclusive space for current and future students.
An equitable (and hopefully enjoyable) graduate school experience can’t be achieved without the expressed contribution and support of its participants. As a department, we are fortunate to have so many of its members be committed to improving our program. The growth of the GSA reflects a student body who wants to cultivate a welcoming environment as well as a department that values the community of its students. Our faculty and staff share the vision for making the department welcoming and inclusive. We encourage everyone to take small measures in making others feel welcome, whether it is saying hello in the hallway or sharing a meal in the GRR or outside in the beautiful weather. Creating a sense of community and belonging is an essential part to elevating our creative output and bringing joy and satisfaction to the workplace. We encourage our students, faculty, and staff to please reach out with your input and ideas to strengthen these values.
Best Wishes,
Phil Bevilacqua and Mary Kate Caucci
Alumni Interview Series
Paula Hietpas
Penn State chemistry alumna and recent Harold Kohn Endowed Distinguished Chemistry Alumni Series speaker Paula Hietpas discusses her graduate school experiences and how a background in chemistry impacted her wide-ranging career from bench work to corporate industry.
A Message from the Graduate Student Association (GSA)
On behalf of Vice-President Kara Pytko:
Did you know bees become indecisive after April 30th? They become MAYbees. Happy May everyone! We hope this month has treated you well. It certainly has been fun on our end. This month we hosted a happy hour at Cafe 210 West, assigned mentors to incoming first-year students, held a housing panel for incoming first-year students, met with Department Head Phil Bevilacqua for lunch to discuss departmental matters, went bowling, had an open-to-the-department GSA meeting, and more! We are so excited for what next month will bring!
The Chemistry GSA has some upcoming outreach events: a volunteering opportunity at the Penn State University Park Special Olympics on June 8th and June 9th, and a volunteering opportunity at Schlow Library's Ask a Scientist event on May 21st, from 2:30pm - 3:30 pm. This event will involve working with elementary school-aged children and helping demo basic chemistry experiments.
We want to congratulate our Spring 2023 Graduate Chemistry Graduates: Dr. Alexander Castonguay | Dr. Benjamin Evangelisti | Dr. Mai Huynh | Jenna Kanyak, MS | Dr. Rowan Katzbaer | Dr. Shannon McGee | Dr. Zachary Rhoden | Dr. Emma Tackman
GSA Executive Board 2023-2024: Mary Kate Caucci, President | Kara Pytko, Vice President | Brandt Graham, Secretary | David Olori, Treasurer | Gaurav Dey, Outreach Chair | Olivia Peduzzi, External Liaison
Chemistry Safety Insights
The Department of Chemistry Safety Committee, which is made up of all Lab Safety Officers has been meeting monthly and working towards ISP Certification.
The Integrated Safety Plan (ISP) is an incentive-based approach which promotes broader employee involvement in workplace safety and health. The basis of this plan is to create a partnership between EHS and participating units at the departmental level. The ISP creates a "structure" for managing safety and health within the department. Taking a structured approach to safety and health will yield numerous benefits to the department including an enhanced safety culture, reduced risk of injury, and improved regulatory compliance. In addition to these benefits, EHS will offer financial incentives in the form of regulatory indemnity and cost sharing to those departments that effectively implement the ISP.
Under the ISP partnership, departments agree to implement three "core elements" in exchange for the financial incentives offered by EHS. The three core elements of the ISP are:
Leadership Commitment | Employee Involvement | Self-Review
EHS will serve as an active partner in the ISP process by providing tools, resources, and consultation to participating departments. EHS will also assess department efforts in order to determine whether or not the ISP criteria have been successfully met. Those departments that meet the criteria will be recognized as being "ISP certified" by EHS and thus become eligible for incentives.
Teaching Corner with Jackie
Promoting Community
I truly love this time of the summer break because I am able to explore new ideas and plan for the coming academic year. In a recent conversation with a colleague, I shared some of my goals for the coming year. I explained that I would like to continue developing ways to promote a sense of belonging and identity for all our graduate and undergraduate students in chemistry.
We began talking about departmental events and then shifted our discussion to how we can make our students feel more welcome at departmental seminars. My colleague suggested, “What if we ask our faculty to invite students in their classes to come to the seminars we will be attending?" I thought this was a great idea because it was something that many of us can easily do in our classes. By letting our students know we will be attending a seminar and sharing what we hope to learn from the presentation, we are assuring them that someone they know will be in the room and we are also providing context for why they may find it interesting. We can also ask members of our instructional team to share these types of invitations.
We all know that it can be intimidating to attend an event where you think you may not know anyone. Inviting our undergraduate majors and graduate students to chemistry events reinforces the message that we are happy to have them be a part of our community and we value their company. A sense of identity is created when someone feels like they belong to a community. This summer we will have many new members of our chemistry community attending seminars and other events. I am going to make a special effort to help them feel welcome by inviting them to attend, and when they arrive, I plan to ask them if they would like to sit with me. Sometimes it is the small things we do that can make the biggest difference.
Take care and I hope your summer is off to a great start,
Jackie Bortiatynski