The Elizabethtown College Chemistry Club hosted a live webinar in Gibble Auditorium Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. The webinar entitled “The Chemist’s Code for Success: 3 Essential Skill Sets for Your Career” was part of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Program in a Box series and focused on time management, handling failure and professional etiquette.
The webinar began by featuring videos from Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University. There were three stories Jobs told about his failures in life – like dropping out of college and being fired from Apple, the company he created – and how he overcame them. The main message was to foster failure and use it as an opportunity to grow and achieve even greater things.
The next part of the webinar featured Patricia Simpson, owner of Game Changing Etiquette and a certified etiquette specialist for ACS. She explained several different aspects of professional etiquette, many of which Etown students were surprised to hear.
“This part of the webinar was really interesting and helpful,” first-year biochemistry major Dottie Porter said. “No one addresses many of these aspects of etiquette, like how long to shake somebody’s hand for, or which side to place a nametag on. I would have never known these things if I didn’t attend the presentation tonight.”
Finally, time management was addressed by 10 different affiliates of ACS, with short clips of them describing how they manage their time. Highlights included learning how to say “no,” as to not over-work oneself, as well as prioritizing tasks, multitasking and setting achievable goals to make the most out of the 24 hours in a day.
After each of the sections, the facilitator instructed the group to do a short activity in which they practiced or talked about the ideas being presented. Each time, the students were instructed to find somebody they did not know and complete the activity.
The first was to talk about one failure in their lives and explain how they overcame that failure. The next was to meet somebody new and to introduce themselves using the professional etiquette tips presented.
“Not only did the webinar allow for professional development, but also networking,” senior biochemistry major and Chemistry Club president Ricky Castro said. “ACS provided a platform for both students and professionals, alike, to learn something new and further develop themselves in the field.”
The webinar concluded with Amanda Yarnell, chemist and journalist for ACS, and Simpson reading comments and answering questions from students watching around the world.
Throughout the presentation, the interactive nature of the webinar was stressed, and students were encouraged to post questions and comments to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, using the hashtag #ACSPIB.
Porter was highlighted during the webinar for posting one of Yarnell’s favorite comments posted to Twitter and her comment was read aloud at the end of the webinar: “Imagine yourself as a CEO looking to hire the person in the mirror. If you would not hire them, no one else would want to either.”
ACS’s next live webinar in their Program in a Box series will be held Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017 and is entitled “The Chemistry of Sports.”
