Stanford AIChE Student Chapter Spotlight

How do you build an undergraduate community in the midst of a global pandemic? The Stanford American Institute of Chemical Engineers, (AIChE) student chapter set out to tackle that challenge by deploying creative engagement opportunities over the past two years, bringing Stanford’s Chemical Engineering community closer together in a virtual world. 

Creating a community online

As classes and in-person events quickly shifted to an online environment in the spring of 2020, the AIChE chapter was faced with building and growing the undergraduate community virtually.

“During the pandemic, we had multiple class years of chemical engineering undergraduates living through different degrees of their undergraduate experience entirely online and off-campus,” said Jennifer Wang, Co-President of the AIChE student chapter. Remote learning posed challenges for chemical engineering students to engage not only with each other, but also with the broader Stanford community. To facilitate connections, “we held several events on Zoom including career panels and alumni roundtables. We were also continuing mentoring programs.”

The chapter created a virtual mentoring program that served as an exceptional resource for the undergraduate community, with the focus of mentoring undeclared students across a virtual campus. Mentors were recruited from declared sophomores, juniors, and seniors from chemical engineering. Together, they hosted the program entirely online, fostering relationships that would have gone otherwise unconnected.

“Building back our community despite two years of being online has been a challenging but rewarding process," said Vincent Xia, Co-President of the AIChE student chapter. “It’s definitely taken a bit of extra effort to make things work virtually (and more recently, in-person), but we’ve found ourselves extremely inspired by the way our community and our peers have pushed through all the challenges.”

A return to campus

Now that students are returning to campus, AIChE is abuzz with even more excitement as the chapter has been able to safely resume in-person events.

"This past fall quarter, we focused on building community with a few social events including an outdoor boba welcome event in August, a barbecue at Professor Gerald Fuller’s house, and a Week 10 study break,” said Naomi Ray, Co-VP of mentorship for the AIChE student chapter. “We want students to make more personal connections and have a go-to junior or senior to answer their career or class-related questions. We have 11 mentees and 8 mentors and can’t wait to meet them at our dinner event in February!"

The leadership team has also experienced growth to support the increased demand fueled by the chapter’s engagement. There are nine students serving in leadership positions, helping to organize more events this year as the chapter continues to grow.

What’s next for the chapter

Moving forward, the chapter plans to continue building an internal community and providing networking events for all undergraduates in the department. AIChE leaders have a passion for growing the undergraduate community in the department and the chemical engineering footprint on campus. 

“We hope that the chapter will continue to serve as a home for chemical engineering undergraduates and all students interested in the chemical and biological sciences; a place where we can grow and learn together in preparation for tackling some of the most challenging problems of our time,” said Vincent. 

The chapter wants to demonstrate how supportive the Stanford community is and that students can find a home here—a home where students can take on a major and find a community that will offer support in the face of growth and adversity.

“I'm really proud of the students for what they've been able to achieve during one of the toughest times that all of us have ever experienced,” said Professor Danielle Mai, an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford and faculty advisor to the AIChE student chapter . “They've maintained great enthusiasm both for their studies and for the things that our organization is doing. Without them, we wouldn't have an undergraduate chemical engineering community on campus. Our student leaders keep the spirit of our department and our growth moving forward.”

About AIChE

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers is a global professional organization for chemical engineers. At Stanford, all undergraduates in chemical engineering are considered members of the AIChE student chapter and are welcome to attend events, propose their own, or start a conversation.

The chapter is organized by students in the department who are elected to yearly leadership positions. Professor Danielle Mai serves as the current faculty advisor for the chapter.

Undergraduates looking to get involved in the Stanford AIChE student chapter can visit their page on the departmental intranet for more information.