Education Program

In today’s world, change is a given, whether in the workplace, the lab, at school, or within ACS. Regardless of your specific responsibilities, knowing how to manage change and lead others to stay focused, productive and future-oriented is essential to being a successful leader. If you are able to manage change skillfully, you will be prepared to respond to change more rapidly, and be agile in a time where change is happening at record pace.

If you are involved in shifting team priorities, changing the direction of a project, or reconfiguring teams, understanding how people react to change and how to help yourself and others effectively deal with the changes is a key to increasing your professional success.

Do you know how to respond to these common reactions to change?

• Pushing back when a team’s goals are shifted
• Projects stalling because of a change in direction
• Confusion and ineffective communication due to personnel changes on a committee or project team

These and other problems can negatively impact the success of a group or project. It requires you to help others move through change by meeting reality head-on, connecting with the new vision, planning a new approach, and engaging others to join you in moving the project forward.

This four-hour course provides you with a step-wise process to lead change and guide others more effectively through the change process.

You will gain a skill that can be used daily on the job, at school, and  in projects as well as volunteer leadership roles. Specifically, learn:

• Why we resist change.
• A 3-step process for leading change in a team or work group.
• How to maintain a clear vision and instill a strong sense of direction and purpose in everyone involved.
• How to keep everyone on-track, focused on top priorities, and moving forward.
• How best to communicate new insights into key issues, problems, and opportunities the group faces.

Who Should Attend This Workshop?

Everyone can use the skills taught in this interactive workshop. If you are involved in projects that continually change—or are soon to face changes—in direction, member involvement, and objectives, you will find this workshop valuable. If you are leading projects such as change initiatives, projects requiring working with other groups, or new initiatives that will likely experience changes in the course of completion, plan to attend this program. Leading Change provides practical tools and an approach that you can apply immediately in your work, school projects, and leadership roles.

Some of the greatest achievements in science, medicine, the arts, and business have been the result of collaboration among groups of people who shared their resources, their visions, and their expertise to produce unique, innovative products and solutions to problems. Without collaboration, the potential power of sharing ideas and information is lost. Now more than ever, collaboration is the way we need to work – in teams and in larger organizations as well.

To be a highly effective partner or team member, you need to learn the core strategies and tools to make collaboration more productive. In this 4-hour hands-on facilitated course you will learn how to make collaborative decisions, develop common goals, ensure equity between what people bring and what they gain from the effort, and gain commitment, establish trust and resolve conflicts.

Collaborating Across Boundaries provides the strategies and tools to make collaboration more productive including:

• Developing common goals
• Ensuring equity between what individuals and groups bring and what they gain from the effort
• Gaining commitment from individuals and groups
• Establishing trust and resolving conflict

This workshop will provide leaders and professionals with strategies and tools they need to make collaboration across organizational boundaries both more productive and more rewarding. Leaders and individuals in professional environments, research and education, and within the Society need to be able to collaborate effectively with scientists, teams, and leaders to accomplish their objectives.

Instructional Objectives

Participants will learn:

• The core components required to achieve successful collaboration across organizational boarders.
• How to develop common goals that ensure collaborative efforts.
• How to perform a “value analysis” of resource contribution, and ensure equity between what parties bring and what they gain from the collaborative effort.
• How to identify the right people – core and adjunct team members.
• Strategies for how to engage people, gain their commitment, and connect with their business and personal interests.
• How to help champions emerge and develop their skills to drive the project.
• Strategies for establishing trust and resolving conflict.

Who Should Attend This Workshop?

This workshop is designed for leaders and professionals in industry, universities and colleges, research facilities, government as well as the Society. We encourage those who are currently leading or who are planning to lead a project or initiative that will require collaboration across an organizational boundary.

Finding Yourself: Identifying a Career that Matches your Strengths and Values

Finding Yourself: Identifying a Career that Matches Your Strengths and Values allows you to self-assess your career values and strengths.   Participants will also learn how the four sectors of chemistry employment compare and contrast. This course will also help you determine which sector best aligns to your values and strengths and plan your next steps to obtaining an ideal position.

Networking: How to Get Started

Will help participants utilize networking to enhance their job search.  Participants will also learn which types of questions to create a natural flow in a networking conversation.   The course will also help you create a networking plan to locate and obtain your ideal job in the federal government.

Setting Yourself Up for Success in an Interview

Breaks down the interview process into navigable stages.  Participants will also learn how to identify critical performance factors from job announcement media.  The course will also help interviewees to develop a plan to relate their experience and values to the job requirements and organization values of their potential employers.

Making the Most of Your Interview: Outshining the Competition

Offers strategies and techniques to develop an extremely effective interview. Participants will also learn how to anticipate questions; develop thoughtful, robust responses; and, handle difficult questions.  The course will not only provide critical proactive interview scenarios, but will also help participants leave a lasting impression with hiring staff to secure the position well-aligned to their strengths and values.

Mary Engelman & John Engelman:

Mary Engelman graduated from Northeast State Community College and has been working for Eastman Chemical Company in the research labs for 24 years.  Mary has been active in the ACS locally since 1989 and nationally since 2004. She has held positions such as chair of a division and a committee, counselor for a division and work on several Presidential Task forces concerning undergraduate jobs and undergraduate education.  Mary is a certified career workshop facilitator and an ACS Career Consultant. Mary travels to universities to help inform the graduating classes about how to prepare themselves for careers in industry. In 2009, Mary was awarded the honor of ACS Fellow.

John Engelman graduated from Ferris State University and retired in 2013 after 49 years in industry. John worked for Dow Corning Corporation, Bechtel/Consumers Power, Quantum Composites, Dow Chemical Company and S. C. Johnson & Son.  John has been active in the ACS since 1991 having chaired two divisions, and one national committee. Helped to form two local technician affiliate groups and one subdivision of the ACS.  John is a certified workshop facilitator and an ACS Career Consultant. John travels to universities to help inform students on preparing themselves for careers in industry. In 2003, he was honored with a Doctor of Science from Ferris State University.  In 2010, John was awarded the honor of ACS Fellow.

Dr. Al Hazari, a former chemistry professor and K-16 science outreach program developer and director, will showcase chemistry concepts through a variety of safe hands-on demonstrations and experiments suitable for students, teachers and the general public.

We have developed large-scale molecular orbital balloon models for implementation in the general, organic, or physical chemistry classroom. The purposes of the models are to help students visualize and understand concepts of pi-bonding, conjugation, aromaticity, and cycloaddition reactions or symmetry-controlled reactions. (Using Balloons to Model Pi-Conjugated Systems and to Teach Frontier Molecular Orbital Theory. World Journal of Chemical Education. Vol. 6, No. 2, 2018, pp 102-106.)  In this workshop we will show how to make small-scale graphene, graphite and buckyballs. Handouts will be provided with instructions for making large-scale graphene sheets, carbon nanotubes, graphite, and pi-conjugate systems.

Learn about nuclear science and how to present in classroom lectures.

Learn about nanotechnology and corresponding experiments for implementation in the classroom.

Learn about the chemistry used by the Sumo Robot League, an Augusta Georgia startup, to create their initial prototypes and products.  Then get hands-on experience coding sumo robots in a graphical programming environment called mBlock (a fork of MIT’s Scratch programming language) that can easily be used in the classroom.  Participants will receive instruction on programming the robot’s ultrasonic sensors, infrared line sensors, and motors and then test their programs against other robots in the Dohyo (Sumo Ring).  No prior coding experience needed. Please bring a laptop if you have one and willingness to try something new!