It is a truth universally acknowledged that any chemist must be in want of a great society. Fortunately for chemistry students at the University of Birmingham, that’s exactly what they’ve got.
First and foremost, ChemSoc exists to improve the student experience for chemists. Whether this is selling lab coats, hoodies and model kits (essential for any chemist worth their salt!), organising socials, careers events or volunteering opportunities and more.
Some highlights from this year include a string of successful socials (organised by our events reps Joe Davies and Char Cunningham) catering to everyone with pub quizzes, nights out, trampolining and ice skating. To end the year with a bang, we’ve put on our very first 12 days of Christmas to get everyone in the festive spirit. That’s 12 days of events that had members participate in Foodbank Fridays, the Christian Union Carols, a bake sale and many more.
We also hope to help our members prepare for their careers after university. Our Careers Rep Irma Houmadi has been hard at work with the School to organise talks from major players in industry like BP as well as an assessment centre workshop and a careers fair. In the next year, we are excited to be organising an alumni “speed networking” event, which will be an excellent opportunity for students to meet and learn more about potential employers.
New to our committee this year is the role of Sports Rep. Harry Fell, who is the first to hold the position, has launched us into the world of sport, an area we had yet to conquer. This has allowed the society to enter the EPS league for the first time with our new football team and a joint hockey team with BioSoc.
The newly established football team and one of their games
We continued our tradition of working with schools. Our Outreach Rep, Ornella Ewers, looked after our tutoring scheme, where students can volunteer to tutor GCSE students, as well as our STEM ambassador scheme where students can once again volunteer to go into schools to try and engage the young people by performing experiments. The schemes have provided an excellent chance for chemists to make a difference in local communities, add to their CVs and make their university experience more well-rounded.
True to ChemSoc style, our charity reps Benita Kellay and Seraphim Leng have worked tirelessly this year raising a growing total of almost £1,000 for a variety of excellent charities, such as Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital, British Heart Foundation and Movember.
Two amazing creations from the Halloween charity bake sale
All in all this term has been an excellent one for ChemSoc, we look forward to taking you all on the journey with us next year. Be sure to keep an eye out for any of our events on our Instagram page; they’re open to all, even *shudder* non-chemists. We are especially looking forward to ChemBall, well known to be the biggest and best event of the year! Special thanks also to our fearless leader Tamsin Durrant and lovely treasurer Amy Richardson for everything they do.
See you soon!
Nadia Farag
ChemSoc Secretary