It’s the start of the semester and SACNAS has been in full swing. We’ve already had our first Cena y Ciencias and will release more details about our upcoming events soon. Newcomers are always welcome.

Below is an article about the SACNAS conference in Science Magazine, concluding with an interview with our own past president Ariana Bravo about working for the federal government. Go Ariana!

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2015_11_25/caredit.a1500269

The video for our Graduate Chapter of the Year acceptance speech is also up, featuring Ariana and Alex Stanton, the current SACNAS UIUC president. Check it out.

We are also featured on the front page of the UIUC Grad College website, linking to an interview with the board. Read it here:

http://www.grad.illinois.edu/news/illinois-sacnas-chapter-honored-commitment-diversity-and-community-education

November was a busy month for UIUC SACNAS! As far as outreach, our last Cena y Ciencias: Phases of the Moon was a success and we volunteered at Genome Day at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum  and  ran demos for Latino Family Visit Day.

Annually, SACNAS offers Spanish speakers to serve as translators at Genome Day in our mission to make Spanish a language of power in the scientific community and to allow Spanish speakers to surpass a language barrier that would otherwise have deterred them from these activities.

For Latino Family Visit Day, we performed three experiments for the visiting high school students and their college student siblings . Brenda Andrade lead a lesson about surfactants using dry ice and soap, Alex Stanton led a project using cornstarch and water about non-Newtonian fluids, and then Tania Aguilar taught us about unit cells and crystal structures using gum drops and toothpicks.

A special thanks to Alicia P. Rodriguez for the photos!

Thursday, Nov. 5, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
La Casa Cultural Latina
The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science is hosting a public workshop on how to apply to summer research programs. Join us to learn about how a research program would benefit you, how to find the appropriate program and what the basic requirements are needed to apply.
sacnas.uiuc@gmail.com

This past weekend UIUC took over #SACNAS2015! We hosted a successful workshop on our outreach program Cena y Ciencias. Between undergraduate Kimberly Sam and graduates Hector Lopez, Elena Montoto and Michael Santana, our members took home two poster presentation awards and two oral presentation awards. For our Graduate Chapter of the year Award, Brenda Andrade and Ariana Bravo were invited to meet the director of the Office of Science and Technology in the White House.  We may have even gained another member or two. We’re proud of each other and are coming back hitting the ground running with a workshop this Thursday.
“I L L… I N I!!! Go SACNAS!!”

On Monday September 21st, we held our first Cena y Ciencias of the academic year! Our students had a blast learning about the solar system in our lesson The Scale of the Universe, taking small maps to a larger scale as they split into groups and walked out the distances between planets.

For our efforts in Cena y Ciencias and support for minorities in science, Brenda Andrade,  Ariana Bravo,  and María Alejandra Bautista were invited to meet with Lt. Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti on September 16th. The discussion revolved around outreach and programs to help encourage underrepresented populations pursue STEM fields. To read more, visit http://www.istem.illinois.edu/news/sanguinetti.html