Chemistry puns and community building: IDEAS Student Society creates safe space for ASU Online STEM students

12 minutes

 

IDEAS Student Society at Arizona State University was founded in 2019 by a group of ASU Online undergraduate students searching for a STEM community. Today, the club has amassed more than 500 online students, providing a social and professional environment for those who need it. 

According to their organization’s mission statement, IDEAS stands for inclusion, diversity, education, advocacy and science. Some featured degree programs at IDEAS include biological sciences, chemistry, health sciences, engineering, economics, sustainability, psychology, forensic sciences, computer science, anthropology and more. 

Since the club’s conception, its officers and executive members have shifted gears, hoping to create a welcoming environment for all students pursuing degrees in the field of science, not just biology and chemistry majors. 

Alexandria Rumschlag, a fourth-year biological sciences student and the current president of IDEAS Student Society, commented on the broad range of students they seek to include. 

“The biggest goal I had in mind for IDEAS was to broaden the scope for members, so we didn’t only have biology and chemistry students, but also welcomed anthropology and psychology,” Rumschlag said. “That is still STEM. Soft sciences are still science. They are still valid.” 

Even executive officers of the society still remember how isolating online schooling can be. Fourth-year biochemistry and medicinal chemistry student and officer of advertising and branding for IDEAS, Mason Farmwald, shared his experience as a former in-person student. 

“Before I came to ASU, I was an in-person student at an in-state university, and the culture there was so different,” Farmwald said. “That’s not what I wanted our members to feel at IDEAS, especially as online students. That can be particularly isolating sometimes. It’s you, and if you don’t find other people, that’s it.” 

IDEAS Student Society, while highly social and interactive, has a central mission of providing relevant resources to ASU Online STEM students. On their website, the team has shared a financial literacy guide, a guide to Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), ASU scholarship opportunities and external scholarship sites. 

Some upcoming scholarship opportunities featured by IDEAS include those conducted by the ASU School of Molecular Sciences and the ASU School of Life Sciences, as well as the Online Undergraduate Research Scholarship (OURS) program. All the above scholarship applications are open until Feb. 2024. For more information, visit the IDEAS Student Society resource page here. 

Aside from their digital resources, IDEAS publishes a monthly newsletter called the Lightbulb Gazette. This newsletter not only features prevalent STEM news and writings from their team members, but it also provides their students with additional scholarship opportunities and mental health tips. 

One unique aspect of IDEAS’s core mission is that they not only work with undergraduate and graduate ASU Online students, but they also have resources for those entering the workforce. 

“Plenty of alumni come back to IDEAS, asking for guidance,” Rumschlag said. “Even if they’re way past where we are in our academic careers, we still go out of our way to help anybody, regardless of what they’re path is.” 

Despite their primarily remote status, IDEAS Student Society meets regularly to give ASU STEM students a community of their own. They meet weekly for “-OH Hour,” where members play icebreaker games and network with like-minded peers. The name itself is a chemistry pun for “happy hour.” Existing and prospective members can join their Zoom every Thursday at 7 p.m. 

This weekly social hour is highly valued by students like Rumschlag, who sought to welcome all sides of STEM students rather than just their professional prowess.

“Yes, we do provide professional and career-oriented services, but we are also students,” Rumschlag said. “We are people, and we like to have fun too. It helps to show the fun side of IDEAS.” 

Members looked back fondly on a few themed -OH Hour meetings from the fall 2023 semester, including a welcome week meeting and a spooky STEM costume contest. According to Jonina Rodriguez, a fourth-year biological sciences student and the IDEAS vice president of communications, these themed events help bring out a different side of STEM students. 

“Some of my favorite -OH Hours are where we can see the creativity from our members,” Rodriguez said. “Seeing how creative STEM students are was mind-blowing. You don’t often think of us like that because we’re so focused on sciences, but our members knocked it out of the park.”

While traditional in-person meetings work for most ASU clubs and organizations, IDEAS has adapted well to their cross-platform format. These -OH Hours are optional, as are all service and community initiatives put forward by the club. 

“Whereas in-person clubs typically just meet and then leave, we can do events over the course of an entire week, because we have online adaptability,” Farmwald said. “The Spooky STEM was a week-long event in our team Discord server where people could send in their entries on their own time. It’s double-sided. We can have traditional meetings and remote, long-form meetings.” 

While still highly social and creative, IDEAS Student Society also fosters educational and professional experiences for their students. IDEAS partners with science facilities to help their members network and learn about available opportunities at ASU. 

One of their prominent events, the ASU Online Research Expo, took place on Dec. 2, 2023. IDEAS organized the event with the School of Life Sciences Undergraduate Research (SOLUR) program, the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center (ACE) Scholars program, and the Online Undergraduate Research Scholars (OURS) program. Professionals from each of the programs spoke about their respective research opportunities at the Expo, and IDEAS students were able to ask questions in 1-on-1 breakout rooms via Zoom. 

“It was fun to see how we gave our members the avenue of making research easier to get into and, on the other side, seeing how interested they were,” Farmwald said. “Our students asked so many questions that I didn’t think they would ask, and we found answers for them through the Expo.” 

IDEAS Student Society welcomes new members on a rolling application, so if you are an ASU Online STEM student looking for a community, consider applying here. Their officer team is substantial, with three executive officers, six appointed officers and three newsletter editors, who pride themselves on being accessible to all IDEAS members. 

Candance Damiani, a fourth-year human systems engineering student and the IDEAS officer of web administration, spoke fondly about the club’s welcoming and inclusive message. 

“There is something intrinsically different about this organization,” Damiani said. “They go above and beyond to make you feel welcomed in a genuine way, to help you with either courses or your future career moves. I feel lucky to have found a home within IDEAS because it can be isolating as an online student, being alone 90% of the time.” 

For more information about IDEAS Student Society, use the following links: 
https://asu.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/ideas
https://www.ideasatasu.org/home
 

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Officers interviewed: 

• Alexandria Rumschlag (she/her): Fourth-year student majoring in biological sciences with a concentration in biomedical; also getting a certificate in evolutionary medicine; president of IDEAS Student Society.
• Jonina Rodriguez (she/her): Fourth-year student majoring in biological sciences with a concentration in genetics style and developmental biology; transition into MS in biology of her four-plus-one program; vice president of communication for IDEAS. 
• Mason Farmwald (he/him): Fourth-year student majoring in biochemistry/medicinal chemistry; officer of advertising and branding for IDEAS. 
• Candance Damiani (she/her): Fourth-year student majoring in human systems engineering; also doing for-plus-one program for MS in human systems engineering; officer of web and administrations for IDEAS. 

Interview notes: 

• Background on IDEAS: 

  • - By Alexandria Rumschlag: IDEAS was created in 2019 by a bunch of undergraduate students, mostly biology and biochemistry students. They wanted to provide a gathering place for students, specifically in science and in those degree programs, but now we’ve kind of changed gears. We now provide more of a community for all of ASU Online STEM students, so we actually opened the umbrella entirely up to all STEM, not just a few degrees. We provide resources, guidance and support with goal completion through academic and career journeys. Plenty of alumni still come back to IDEAS for further guidance. They still ask us ‘What should we do?’. Even if they’re way past where we are, we still go out of our way to help anybody, regardless of what they’re path is. IDEAS is an important ASU club because it’s one-of-a-kind. We are one of the largest ASU Online organizations, and we’ve continued growing at accelerated rates. For example, in August, all ASU Online clubs had to do a full reset. Since that time, we already have almost 500 members back, so we have a very large team. We provide resources for many different students with a whole bunch of different majors, ranging from user experience graduate students to our undergraduate biochemistry students. I joined in February 2022, but I didn’t become an officer until the 2022-2023 academic year. I started as a dual officer, so I was officer of advertising and branding and officer of web administration. I became the president in the 2023-2024 academic year, and the biggest goal I had in mind for IDEAS was to broaden the scope for members so we didn’t only have biology and chemistry students, but also welcomed anthropology and psychology because that is still science. That is still STEM. Soft sciences are still science. They are still valid. 
  • - By Jonina Rodriguez: I joined back in Fall 2022 after being at ASU for a year, because I wanted to get more involved with students instead of just being a student who only did classwork and nothing else. Even as an online student, I wanted to get that college experience. In the Spring 2023, I became interested in joining as an officer, because their mission statement hit a lot of moral values I had, especially with the inclusivity and making sure everyone gets the best out of their time at ASU. One of my goals in my position was to reach the new students who were just starting out at ASU because a lot of them can’t find the resources needed when they first start out. IDEAS does that. We give them those resources so they can get involved in research, get involved with job opportunities, and figure out where they want to go with their journey at ASU. 
  • - By Mason Farmwald: I was on the officer train really fast. I joined in February 2023, and by April 2023, I was learning to do advertising and branding, which is fun. I get to bring my love of digital design and photography to the table in a way that normally doesn’t mesh well with STEM. I really appreciate our emphasis on collaboration, not competition. Before I came to ASU, I was an in-person student at an in-state university, and the culture there was so different. It was very much “you’re on your own” and “fight for your life.” That’s not what I wanted our members to feel at ASU, especially as online students. That can be particularly isolating sometimes. It’s you, and if you don’t find other people, that’s it. I wanted to be a part of providing that community for online people, not only to connect them, but also helping our STEM members to feel they’re not fighting one another, and we can all work together to make a better STEM for everyone. 
  • - By Candance Damiani: I have also been an online student, and I went back to school much later in life. I never really got the whole college experience. I wanted to immerse myself in ASU as a whole, specifically in STEM. I stumbled on IDEAS when I was looking at a bunch of different clubs and organizations that ASU had to offer. IDEAS really stuck out to me, as I was really drawn to the mission, the moral values, and the club seemed to be really welcoming. I interviewed with the executives for an officer role. There is something intrinsically different about this club. They go above and beyond to make you feel welcomed in a genuine way to help you with either courses or your future career moves. I feel lucky to have found a home within IDEAS because it is isolating as an online student, being alone 90% of the time. 

• Meetings/events for IDEAS:

  • - By Alexandria Rumschlag: It’s still in progress of being changed with the new semester, but we do have a social meeting called OH Hour. It’s a chemistry pun. It means cocktail hour, to keep things more PG. We host it every week on Thursdays at 7 pm. We have had tons of different events, but the biggest to stand out for me was the OH Hour welcoming week edition, back in August 2023. We had around 20 new students, and we were all playing icebreaker games. A lot of them seemed nervous coming in, but once we started playing games, it broke down their barriers. Yes, we do provide professional and career-oriented services, but we are also students. We are people, and we like to have fun too. It got to show the fun side of IDEAS. 
  • - By Jonina Rodriguez: Some of my favorite OH Hours are where we can see the creativity from our members. We had a spooky STEM costume contest back in October, and just seeing how creative STEM students are was mind-blowing. You don’t often think of us STEM students as creative because we’re so focused on sciences, but our members knocked it out of the park.
  • - By Mason Farmwald: My favorite event is the research expo we host because of course it’s good to have fun, but we’re also highly professional. We got the Hours Program, SOLO Program, and the Ace Scholars Program all to come in and talk to our students about the opportunities online students have. They asked so may questions that I didn’t think they would ask, and we found answers for them through the expo. Some people didn’t know how to get into research, and we told them to start cold-emailing people, just to see what happens. It was fun to see how we gave our members the avenue of making research easier to get into and, on the other side, seeing how interested they were. Our events are also unique as an online club. Whereas in-person clubs typically just meet then leave, we can do events 24/7 over the course of an entire week, because we have online adaptability. In our Discord server, the Spooky STEM was a week-long event where people could send in their entries on their own time, when they wanted to. It’s double-sided. We can have traditional meetings and remote, long-form meetings.
• Impact of IDEAS + what draws in students:
  • - By Mason Farmwald: As a student organization, we only have so much sway. But at IDEAS, we like to think we’re at the forefront of changing how we approach STEM and working together, as both colleagues and friends. With most STEM education, we’re always told it’s a competition between us, that someone is always going to be better than us. It can feel like a rat race. It’s not conducive to good student learning or feelings of success for the student population. If you feel like you’re fighting everyone, you feel burnt out. You get exhausted, and then you’re done. At IDEAS, we like to establish that bond of collaboration, not competition. We don’t want our students to feel like they have to work alone and you can’t ask anyone for help because that’s not how the real world works. We feel that STEM as a whole can contribute so much more to the world.
• Next year:
  • - Publish events to website/google calendar.
  • - Virtual science fair