Several years ago the ACS decided to discontinue its support for regional awards for high school teachers. This was an unfortunate and misguided decision for several reasons. There are many anecdotes to support the important role that good high school teachers play in sparking interest in chemistry. Most of us remember our high school chemistry teacher, and many were strongly influenced by that teacher to become chemists. The regional awards served as public recognition of the importance of high school teachers in our profession. Given that ACS is changing its requirements and trying to make membership in the society more attractive to high school teachers (see the announcement for Chemistry Teacher Connection, discontinuing an award program that honored the best of those teachers seemed ill advised. The regional awards also served to define a pool of candidates for the ACS’s James Bryant Conant Award, the national award for excellence in high school chemistry teaching. There are far more good teachers than can be rewarded by a single award each year—far more even than can be rewarded by an award for each of the ten ACS regions. Fortunately, Glenn Crosby, Mort Hoffman, and DivCHED have stepped into the breach.

Although a milestone has been reached, more contributions to the endowment are needed. Much of the first $100,000 came from large donors and it is now time for individuals to come forward and support the program. A copy of the form to make a contribution is available at the DivCHED Web site (see the announcement “Teaching Excellence Endowment”). I encourage you to use it if you have not yet contributed. There are more than 5000 individual subscribers to this Journal in the U.S. If each subscriber donated $20 to the endowment tomorrow, the additional $100,000 needed would be obtained. Of course not everyone will respond, so a larger amount would be appropriate from those who want to support this effort. The regional awards program’s future will not be completely assured until the $300,000 goal is met, so please make a generous donation.

If you have already donated to this program, or even if you have not, there are other ways to support it. It is important that each of the ten ACS regions establish procedures for canvassing for nominations region-wide and for selecting awardees annually. Someone will be needed in each region to spearhead such efforts. The awards selection committee in each region must include at least one DivCHED member, so consider volunteering to serve in your region. The awards will be more meaningful if they are presented at a creatively conceived and well-organized ceremony at a regional ACS meeting or some other venue, so you could volunteer your talents in that direction. If you are interested in furthering the high school teacher awards in these or other ways, contact Mort Hoffman, and/or a representative in your region. (Contact information for all regional boards is available.)

While we are on the subject of ACS regions, consider whether you could make more effective use of the ACS regional meetings. Regional meetings are great for students, undergraduate and graduate, to attend and present papers. National meetings usually present so many opportunities that students (and even seasoned meeting-goers) can be overwhelmed by the possibilities. Regional meetings are smaller and friendlier to novice attendees. At a regional meeting a student can present either a poster or an oral paper in a more supportive environment, with the knowledge that other students from the same institution are more likely to be able to attend. Meeting rooms are usually close together so that offerings from different divisions can be sampled more easily and a student can go to a variety of presentations tailored to the student’s interests. Finally, the expense and time commitments for a regional meeting are less than for a national meeting. Faculty and students can often drive together to the meeting site, exchanging information about the profession along the way, and there is much less expense for travel and subsistence. Encourage your students (and yourself) to submit abstracts and to attend the next regional meeting in your area.

The Division of Chemical Education is making a major commitment to high school teachers and to ACS regional meetings through the Regional High School Teacher Award Program. Please join us in making this program a great success.