Bachelor in Chemistry

Earn an ACS Accredited Chemistry Degree from Saint Francis University

Chemistry majors at Saint Francis University become problem-solving scientists through hands-on experience at the undergraduate level — developing skills to set them up for successful careers in government, industry, education, medicine, and private institutions. Students will benefit from lab experience, research opportunities, and internships as they work to achieve their goals.

• Access to state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation
• Opportunities for one-on-one instruction and collaborative research projects
• American Chemical Society award-winning program

The SFU Learning Experience

Collaboration is the heart of our chemistry program. Our teaching philosophy is to foster a colleague relationship between you and our faculty. For example, classroom lectures are active learning environments where you work directly with faculty on problem-solving skills. You will also partner with faculty on undergraduate research opportunities, lab teaching assistantships, and service projects.

Work and play can be the key to chemistry success!

Your interests will determine your path to becoming a research chemist, pharmacist, high school teacher, forensic scientist, or any array of professions—it’s all up to you.

Research: In our program, students are encouraged to start doing undergraduate research as early as freshman year, gaining you valuable hands-on experience on techniques and instrumentation used in industry, research labs, or chemical facilities.

Outreach: R.O.C.K. (Rural Outreach Chemistry for Kids) In the R.O.C.K. program you can work with local K-12 students to show that science (especially chemistry) is important in everyone's life and can be exciting. R.O.C.K. volunteers perform hands-on chemistry experiments and activities using mainly household products. We focus on classroom visits (not stage presentations) in the 5 county area around SFU (Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Clearfield, and Somerset). R.O.C.K. also looks at the role that chemistry will have in the future as well as how it will benefit our society

Engagement: Become that someone through enriched learning opportunities and community-engagement courses, and actively affect change in the world.

Instrumentation: Access to state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation — beginning as a freshman — will set you up for success as a graduate student or chemistry professional.

Club Involvement:

• Chemistry Club: The American Chemical Society Student Chapter is an organization dedicated to showing the university and the general community how fun science can be. We host and participate in a wide variety of campus events, including National Chemistry Week and the Solar 5K. We also partner closely with R.O.C.K. (Rural Outreach Chemistry for Kids) to offer our members many community service opportunities throughout the school year.

Honor Society:

• Gamma Sigma Epsilon Chemistry honor Society is a national chemistry honor society founded in 1919 at Davidson College. The fraternity was created to promote academic excellence and undergraduate research scholarship in chemistry. An invitation to membership in Gamma Sigma Epsilon is a coveted honor among students in chemistry.

Accreditation

As a Chemistry major, you will have the opportunity to earn an ACS-certified degree. The Saint Francis University Chemistry Program has been approved by the American Chemical Society to offer ACS-certified degrees. An institution with an ACS-approved program in chemistry is committed to providing a broadly based and intellectually challenging experience in chemistry. The ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) carefully evaluates a chemistry department’s program with respect to its breadth and depth, the qualifications of the chemistry faculty, the adequacy of the facilities, the condition of instrumentation, access to current chemical literature, and opportunities for a meaningful research experience. An academic institution whose chemistry department meets the guidelines for ACS approval is placed on a nationally recognized list of approved chemistry programs.