When hearing about chemistry, thoughts of a rigorous Advanced Placement course can come to mind. But no matter if you enjoy chemistry or not, it is undoubtedly an important aspect of  the world. From the gasoline we use everyday to the medicine that help relieve our illnesses, the use of chemistry is a huge contributing factor into the making of everyday products.

The Chemistry Club hosted a guest speaker for a 2 hour session in the Science Conference Center on Feb.15. The event’s goal was to provide students insight on careers and job opportunities in the chemistry industry.

The guest speaker for this event was Robert Shong, a research scientist from Chevron. He described his occupation and how chemistry was the main proponent to his job. With his presentation came models of oil rigs and posters of the chemical facts that are important to his work. This gave a lot of valuable information for students that have interest in chemistry or the oil fields. With jobs like engineers and researchers, the first steps to be successful are these presentations that introduce the opportunities.

Senior Yinuo Chen and one of the leaders of the Chemistry Club describes what the mission was for the club.

“Our initiative is to let students become more involved into chemistry and encourage them to participate in AP Chemistry,” Chen said. “My focus is to encourage Advanced Placement students to take scholarship opportunities and competitions.”

As a club leader, senior Michelle Miao also talked about how Chemistry Club will impact students.

“My main focus was towards tutoring and letting more people know and be more interested in the field of chemistry,” Miao said. “We use extra credit incentives to let people come and explore more about chemistry than just what they learn in class, but also something that’s applicable to their life. I think it would be good for the students to hear and to see speeches related to chemistry and biology, especially Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering which are really big industries.”

In this event, the Chemistry Club brought in the guest speaker to expand information in another aspect.

“Dr. Robert Shong was invited by Ms. Burmaster, the teacher sponsor for Chemistry Club,” Chen said. “He has been working with Chevron for 37 years. He holds a PhD from Rice University, so he was very well-versed in the oil industry and relations to chemistry.”

The motive of the club and the event showed how extracurricular activities and events can help improve a student’s knowledge about an industry using hands-on experience.