On November 13, 2015, the Graduate Student Affairs Office held its second annual Outreach and Diversity Day, co-sponsored by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
The event was created as a recruiting mechanism to invite prospective students from diversity-sponsored programs to visit the UCLA campus and learn more about graduate life in our department. Students from regional California State University campuses including University of California San Diego, Cal-State Fullerton, Cal-State Los Angeles, and California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, were invited to attend. The prospective students are current members of organizations that promote research diversity in the sciences, such as McNair Scholars, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC), Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE), and Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE).
Event participants with Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Student Affairs office staff.
Professor William Gelbart welcomed the prospective students with an interactive presentation. Regarding the event, Professor Gelbart stated, “I emphasized the interdisciplinary of the research done in the department, with the majority of faculty involved in active collaborations with professors from other science departments and schools at UCLA. The students were eager to hear about particular examples of this cooperation.” Other UCLA Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty participants included Professors Robert Clubb, Alexander Spokoyny, Steven Clarke, Hosea Nelson, Margot Quinlan, and William Gelbart.
Current graduate students served as ambassadors for the event, with members of the Organization for Cultural Diversity in Science (OCDS) providing laboratory tours and highlighting the department’s facilities. Members of OCDS and the Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Student Association (CBGSA) joined the prospective students for lunch, providing backgrounds on research and life at UCLA. The visitors were also given a campus tour, which provided a glimpse of the expansive UCLA campus.
The Outreach and Diversity Day participants departed UCLA with an enthusiastic outlook of the department. They expressed their interest in applying to the Chemistry and Biochemistry graduate programs.
