Our Crowdfunding Groups
Chemical engineering is well-known to be one of the most-demanding and hardest undergraduate programs at Cal. However, there is a lack of academic and professional resources for ChemE students that other majors have, such as open access to previous course material and major-specific career fairs. AIChE, or the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, is the only club in the university that serves all undergraduate chemical engineers and our ultimate goal is to improve the chemical engineering student experience at Berkeley academically, professionally, and mentally. We fill in the professional and emotional gaps from the curriculum by providing ChemE students at Berkeley with four main categories of resources: mentorship, outreach, professional, and social. Our strong mentorship program pairs an underclassman with an upperclassman, similar to a “big-little” system, where the older student can guide the younger in navigating the curriculum and giving advice in course planning and effective studying. As students at Cal, we have an obligation to serve our local community, and thus we have community service events in which we reach out to local schools and ignite the passion for STEM in younger kids. Our most popular resource are the professional events, which include info sessions from collaborations with the top chemical engineering companies, including P&G and Chevron. Finally, our social events aim to help abate the stress from the curriculum, and some events we have held include a fall festival and movie nights.
What Your Funding Will Go Toward
In order to continue building and improving the opportunities and services AIChE provides, we are hoping to fund three new initiatives:
1. Stronger community service events: We plan to host local high school seminars and interactive workshops to allow students to gain a better understanding of studying engineering in college.
2. Tackling mental health: There has been a lack of initiative in increasing mental health resources for students in the College of Chemistry, one of the most difficult programs at Cal. To deal with this issue, we hope to host events, such as cookie support deliveries after exams to help students struggling with "success" at the university.
3. Building more relations with industry: 50% of undergrads in the CoC pursue a career in industry after graduation. However, the college provides minimal resources to help students connect with companies. We hope to build more relations with more fields of interest for ChemEs, especially with startups.
Who We Are
At AIChE UC Berkeley, we have an officer board comprising of 14 driven individuals and 4 committees each with 6 to 8 passionate members that have worked tirelessly to make AIChE an incredible resource for students at the CoC, but we need your help to ensure that we're doing the most for the students we serve! Please consider making a gift today to support our team!
Corporate Committee connects students with industry by hosting networking and professional development events.
Social Committee facilitates bonding between students by planning casual socials and CoC-wide events like movie nights and Fall Festival.
Outreach Committee hosts community service events and connects students with professors for research opportunities through coffee chats and lab tours.
Media Committee teaches graphic design, photography, and videography and works on all flyers/banners, social media, and publications for the club. Reach out to us!If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how you can contribute, feel free to reach out to our Vice President of Finance, Meagan Macavinta, @mmacavinta@berkeley.edu !
At the end of the month, we will feature your name in a thank you post to our generous contributors!
You will be recognized for your donation in the weekly AIChE student newsletter!
You will receive a handwritten thank you note from our officer board!
