Vollmer, Amy Cheng

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Swarthmore College Works Biology Faculty Works Biology 2007 Establishment And Maintenance Of An ASM Student Chapter Amy Cheng Vollmer Swarthmore College, avollme1@swarthmore.edu This work is brought to you for free and open access by . It has been accepted for inclusion in Biology Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-biology  Part of the Biology Commons, and the Microbiology Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits you  Recommended Citation Amy Cheng Vollmer. (2007). "Establishment And Maintenance Of An ASM Student Chapter". Microbe. Volume 2, Issue 8. 405 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-biology/71 problems of underrepresentation. In 2002, he was asked to develop and be chair of the ASM Minority Coalition, which consists of all the ASM minority committees. The Coalition coordinates the actions of these committees, and has helped to bring more minority students into microbiology and more microbiologists into ASM. As a re-sult of his devotion to this cause and his excellent work, George won the 2006 ASM Founders Distinguished Service Award. The award honored his work on behalf of underrepresented minority mem-bers of both ASM and NIH. George is also credited with being instrumental in devel-oping the series of articles in ASM's Mi-crobe known as Faces of ASM, which highlights the diversity existing among ASM members. His other ASM activities included membership on the Committee on Diversity and the Committee on Micro-biologic Issues Impacting Minorities. George Counts is committed to his cause, is fair, gentle, a pleasure to work with, and has made his mark in breaking down barriers in health care disparity. His leadership has allowed ASM to increase the participation of underrepresented members in leadership positions and to bring attention to the issues associated with underparticipation of minority mi-crobiologists. He has been a great mentor to African-American students. As one wrote to him in 1992, "I wish more suc-cessful African-Americans could be like you; unafraid to extend, assist, mentor, guide, advise, listen, direct, praise, encour-age, etc. I could go on and on." Arnold L. Oemain Charles A. Dana Research Institute Drew University Madison, N.J. Christopher E. Taylor NIH/NIAID/DMID/RDB Bethesda, Md. Establishment and Maintenance of an ASM Student Chapter Student members represent the future of the ASM. The Student Membership Com-mittee is enthusiastically encouraging the formation of new Student Chapters as well as actively supporting existing ones. In most cases, ASM Student Chapters are formed by students from a single campus. Students who are galvanized to form a Chapter need to identify a faculty advisor, and then they should contact the local ASM Branch for support. The formal ap-plication process is greatly aided by Jen-nifer Mercurio, the staff member who sup-ports the Student Membership Committee activities at ASM. She can supply a tem-plate for a Chapter constitution to the interested parties. Currently we have 58 active Student Chapters in the United States. There are also three multicampus Stu-dent Chapters. The oldest of these is the Student Chapter supported by the Eastern Pennsylvania Branch of the ASM (EPAASM). In the Philadelphia region, graduate students from Temple Univer-sity, Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University, and the University of Pennsyl-vania have a robust group that meets monthly with programs about career op-tions, and once a year for a full day in their Infection and Immunity Forum, complete with keynote speakers, student and post-doctoral speakers, and poster sessions with prizes. In addition, Student Chapter members are invited to attend and partic-ipate in the monthly meetings of the EP-AASM that feature speakers in basic re-search, clinical microbiology, industry, and education. Currently, the EPAASM Chapter is advised by Simon Knight at the University of Pennsylvania. A newer Student Chapter that was orga-nized by faculty and students at predomi-nantly undergraduate institutions is the Shenandoah Valley Student Chapter that includes students from the campuses of Bridgewater College, James Madison Uni-versity (JMU), Eastern Mennonite Univer-sity, and Mary Baldwin College (primary participating institutions). Faculty and students from the Virginia Military Insti-tute, Washington and Lee University, and Southern Virginia University also attend their activities. The Chapter is advised by Louise Temple of JMU. Finally, the ASM Student Committee has just received an application from stu-dents in the Boston area, who are being advised by faculty on each of the partici-pating campuses: Alan Grossman (Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology), Ralph Isberg (Tufts University), Roberto Kolter (Harvard University), Kim Lewis (North-eastern University), and Jack Murphy (Boston University). This level of faculty support indicates how important the Chapter is to microbiologists in the region! More recently, I have had a conversation with faculty in the Los Angeles area (Uni-veristy of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, and the Califor-nia Institute of Technology) who may be interested in a multicampus chapter there. To us, the continuing stream of applica-tions to form new Chapters is evidence that we have many student members who are excited about the opportunities to net-work and grow professionally within the ASM. If you are a student and are not currently a member of the active Student Chapter in your area, contact the Chap-ter's advisor through the list accompany-ing this article online. Unfortunately, there are also a number of Chapters that were once active and have now gone dormant. In some cases, this occurred when the microbiology depart-ment at a particular university was merged with another department. In other cases, the faculty advisor was no longer available or interested. The Student Membership Committee would like to revive as many of these dormant Chapters as possible. A list of them accompanies this article online. If you are a student or a faculty member who would like to help reactivate a Chapter or organize a new Student Chapter, please contact Jennifer Mercurio at ASM (jmercurio@asmusa.org) or Student Mem-bership Committee Chair Amy Cheng Vollmer ( avollme l@swarthmore.edu). Amy Cheng Vollmer Chair, Student Membership Committee Swarthmore College Swarthmore, Pa. ASM Salutes Its 50-Year Members ASM proudly recognizes those members of the Society for whom 2007 marks the 50th year of their membership. The partic-ipation and achievements of the following members have helped make ASM one of the most prominent and prestigious scien-tific societies in the world. The Society thanks its 50-year members and is pleased to acknowledge their significant contribu-tions to ASM and to modern science. Arthur Aronson Robert Boley Peter Bonventre Volume 2, Number 8, 2007 I Microbe • 405 

Establishment And Maintenance Of An ASM Student Chapter

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Establishment And Maintenance Of An ASM Student Chapter

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