As they say, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree"! Senior varsity swimmer, AJ Schick may just have his father to thank for more than raising him to be a sound young man, but for also introducing him into what has become one of the best organizations he can be a part of as a college student; the American Institute of Chemical Engineers! Fortunately for Schick, his father is a chemical engineer for PepsiCo. By being a member and receiving mail from the professional chapter each month, Mr. Schick had the foresight to share the newsletter with his son, as opposed to simply tossing it to the side.
"I didn't know what it was exactly," AJ recalls. "I just assumed it was some sort of chemical engineering club. When I saw a flyer for the student chapter at RPI, I thought I should be a part of it and learn more."
That decision to "learn more" was one of the best decisions AJ could have made! While many colleges and universities across the country boast about preparing their students today for their careers of tomorrow, RPI actually actively implements it with programs such as American Institute of Chemical Engineers!
Starting from the very bottom of the organization, as the freshman representative responsible for recruiting and bringing the views of his class to the officers meetings, the highly involved and enthusiastic Schick became President of the organization by his sophomore year.
As President of the RPI chapter, AJ oversees the student-run professional organization which is designed for chemical engineering students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, with the sole purpose of connecting the student-body with opportunities outside of school, including industry and research opportunities. AIChE invites representatives from different companies around the local area and abroad to hold presentations and provide information for the students about their company and the opportunities they provide. After each presentation, a Q&A session is held which gives the students insight into working in this unique industry.
"Providing these connections to different career paths helps students figure out where they want to take their degree," AJ said.
Recognizing the excellence that already exists on campus, AIChE also invites current RPI professors to speak about their research and give students the opportunity to participate if interested. Along with these presentations, AIChE provides tours of industrial plants in the area, which allows students first-hand experience without traveling too far.
"Having a chemical engineering degree opens up many doors to different career paths and it can be overwhelming," AJ says. "We hope that these informative presentations will help students narrow the field and make it easier to figure out where they want to take their career outside of college."
Keeping with the spirit of the fun college experience, AIChE also provides fun and entertaining activities with the chemical engineering professors outside of school like bowling and laser tag. These outings allow students to network with professors and give them a chance to view their professors in another light outside of the person whom they may find daunting during lectures.
Bearing in mind that the youth will always be our future, AIChE also participates each year in Exploring Engineering Day sponsored by RPI. On this day, kids from 2nd-6th grade come for fun presentations and hands-on activities from nearly every professional society that RPI has to offer. This year AIChE is holding an Introduction to Ball-ymer engineering, where the kids will learn about polymers and crosslinking while making their own bouncy balls.
In addition to on campus and local events, each year the organization sends a group of students to the AIChE Regional Conference, where AIChE Student Chapters from all over the Northeast come together for a couple of days at a host university. A variety of workshops and networking events are provided by the professional chapters with the largest components of the conference being the ChemE Car Competition.
Each student chapter of AIChE has an internal club called the ChemE car club. The purpose of the competition is to create a shoebox-sized car that runs and stops through chemical reactions. The goal is to have this car move a certain distance holding a pre-determined amount of weight. The winner is decided by the team that has the car stop closest to the distance given. After seven years of not having representation, Arthur and his fellow peers revived RPI's ChemE car club in 2013.
"Since the last RPI ChemE car Team was long gone and graduated we didn't know where to start. It was a lot of fun figuring out what idea we were going to use for our car and how we were going to build it."
The ChemE car club experience, along with the overall purpose of AIChE, is what college here at RPI is all about, a challenge that takes a lot of time, effort, and team work to accomplish!
AJ is confident that when he looks back at his college years, 30 years from now, he will be happy to say, "I was able to do so much because of AIChE!"
