Last week from Dec. 5-8, the Grosse Pointe North Chemistry Club held elections for President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Because of the students’ enthusiasm, this was the first year they’ve held elections.

“It seemed like there was a much higher level of interest, and we had more than one person that wanted to be in a position,” Chemistry Club advisor Steven Kosmas said. “So it seemed like it was a logical way to go.”

Kosmas has been the advisor of Chem Club for more than a decade.

“The first year the American Chemical Society started it, which was a little over 10 years ago, I think 11 years ago, we signed up,” he said. “But I think I’ve been doing it for 13 or 14 years now.”

They had a total of seven people run in the election, some being first year Chemistry Club members like newly elected Treasurer Polly Fitzgerald.

“I actually recently joined this year, but I’m involved with the Rocketry Club, which is also a part of Chem Club, and also research,” Fitzgerald said. “There are four of us from Chem Club that go off to (University of Detroit Mercy) every week, and I’m really involved in it.”

Fitzgerald said her favorite part of Chem Club is the demonstrations they do for elementary and middle school students.

“We get to show like middle schoolers and younger kids all these little demonstrations,” she said. “They’re so amazed by the science and it’s really cute.”

Kosmas said that the types of demonstrations they do depend on what the students want to work with, and whether the experiments will be safe with little kids around.

“We try and take the stuff from the chemistry curriculum, or basic science stuff that’s not dangerous, that we can put in the little kids’ hands,” Kosmas said. “So a lot of it could just be a simple experiment where we’re collecting gas in a syringe, it could be something with a UV light, it could be something with super-absorbent polymers, it all depends on what the students want to work with.”

Secretary Elpedia Katakis is also in her first year of Chemistry Club, and joined because she wanted to meet peo

ple with similar interests, despite the challenging subject.

“I’m not the best at chemistry, but I like it, so I was like maybe I’ll find people who like it too,” Katakis said.

Others have been in the Chemistry Club since they took chemistry as a class, such as President Charlee Tokarz and Vice President Michal Ruprecht.

Katakis said that although she may not be the best at chemistry, she enjoys being in Chemistry Club, and ran for secretary because she wanted to be more involved.

“I ran for secretary because I wanted to be a part of it (Chem Club), on a different level, contribute something,” she said. “Like maybe if it’s not science, it’s helping with recording things about meetings and stuff.”