BY SABRINA EDWARDS ’20 AND CHEYENNE ELLIS ’21
Do you want to get more involved at Mount Holyoke? Are you looking for ways to use your passion for science in a meaningful way? If so, one of the numerous health and science organizations on campus may be right for you. Below is a sampling of some of the clubs and orgs available to join on campus.
Biochemistry Club
Mount Holyoke has a biochemistry club which aims to connect people who are majoring, minoring or interested in the fields of biology and chemistry. Members are able to share ideas, opportunities and experiences in order to prepare for careers in the field. Stirling Mackie ’19 is director of the Mount Holyoke Biochem Club.
“Essentially, the Biochem Club’s main goal is to bring together people who have an interest in chemistry and biochemistry,” she said. “We are open to everyone, even people who are not (bio)chem majors and minors. We have events on Fridays that are usually centered around things that would be helpful to people who are interested in pursuing chemistry as a career, but we also have events for people with just a passing interest in science. We try to do fun events throughout the semester, like themed movie nights and t-shirt decorating contests.”
Recent meetings have included talks on Lynk funding from the Career Development Center and pizza.
Scientista
The Scientista chapter at Mount Holyoke is part of a larger national non-profit organization called The Scientista Foundation. The goal of the organization is to end the gender gap in STEM fields by creating a network of women and gender minorities. On campus, the org strives to provide members opportunities to make them more competitive candidates in their field. Amanda Manaster ’19, co-director of Scientista, mentioned some of the highlights of the org.
“Last semester, we focused on finding internships and some of our events included a Summer Internship Panel in which we featured a handful of upperclassmen who shared their experiences in their respective research labs/companies over this past summer,” she said. “We also did a STEM-oriented resume/CV workshop with the CDC to prepare people to apply for programs over winter break and throughout the early part of this semester,” she said. “In past years, we have invited alumnae to give talks about their careers since Mount Holyoke. We also have had student poster sessions where members presented their research posters to their peers.” Most notably, every year there is a symposium in New York City for all Scientista chapters that we try to fund and send as many people as we can too. We’re working on planning that right now as it takes place in April.”
Peer Health Educators
The Peer Health Educators is a student-staffed organization overseen by the Health Center. Arden Hegberg ’20 described the club as a health-related information source on campus focused on four areas. “We have our four main topic groups that are: Alcohol and other drugs, sexual health, interpersonal violence prevention and general wellness,” said Hegberg.
These four categories cover all of the information that Peer Health Educators provides on campus through events and workshops — at the request of CAs and other Mount Holyoke organizations — and on their website. “Our job is to have information and have it be judgement-free,” said Hegberg, “so whatever people do with this information is their choice. We just want to make sure they have the facts that they need to make the most informed decisions.”
The Peer Health Educators are one of the most active health-related clubs on campus and often host question-answer sessions and other small-scale events for curious students — just look for the camel.
MERT
MERT (Medical Emergency Response Team) is the EMT and first responder team at Mount Holyoke. During the academic semester, they are on call to assist with medical emergencies. Members are able to sign up for volunteer shifts anytime between 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Additional paid opportunities are frequently available as well, including lifeguarding jobs and events such as reunions and horse shows. Meetings take place at the South Hadley District II Fire Department Sunday evenings at 8 p.m. The org is actively seeking people with CPR/first-aid certification or an EMT certificate and encourages anyone interested to come to a meeting.
“I like MERT because it makes emergency healthcare more accessible on campus,” said MERT director Louise Tanner ’19. “It can be scary to be hurt or sick, and having a trained peer respond can make the process of getting the help you need easier.”