CHEMproposals is a project that invites students to design solutions for local sustainability issues, making use of chemistry concepts, discoveries and knowledge. The mission is to connect chemists with communities to design solutions for a more sustainable world, starting locally. CHEMproposals advances the Sustainable Development Goal 17 – Partnerships for the Goals. Especially, to enhance access to science and promote knowledge sharing between academia and the community in general. The model of CHEMproposals is based on constructive feedback and purpose. This model has proven to be inclusive, having participation form students from different academic levels (undergraduate and graduate) and different disciplines (chemistry and environmental sciences). The measurable outcomes of CHEMproposals are: (1) developing a scientifically-supported idea for social impact, measured by student compliance with developing a written and audiovisual proposal; (2) increasing the visibility of students ideas for social impact, measured by the number of additional supporters and opportunities that contribute and have been obtained through participation on CHEMproposals; and (3) successfully transforming CHEMproposals into actions, measured by the number of lives that have been impacted.
Currently, I mentor four students to develop CHEMproposals. Their work will contribute to achieve water quality standards, inclusion in academia, quality education and promotion of mental health. To date, each project seeks to benefit other students and/or faculty members from the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras Campus. My contribution has been to provide supporting information to their proposals, such as statistics and scientific articles. As an example, I graphed data from a survey on the mental health of UPR-RP students, which compiles results from a year-long report. Similarly, I have helped students establish connections needed to grow the impact of their project. In example, spell-checking an e-mail to successfully achieve the opportunity to do water quality tests at the facilities of a Limnology Laboratory on campus. Additionally, I have supported students to apply to additional opportunities to expose their works. Example of this is my contribution to review an abstract for an oral presentation at the American Chemical Society National Meeting, focused on strategies for including students with disabilities in chemistry academic laboratories. I highlight that most CHEMproposals participants have received individual orientation about the Sustainable Development Goals, and this has reinforced their compromise with their project goals. Importantly, CHEMproposals are converted to written documents written in lay language and short videos meant to be shared with the community-at-large and key stakeholders who could potentially support the transformation of CHEMproposals from “proposals” to “action”.