Scholarship for Chemistry Olympiad Teachers

Rules For Scholarship Recipients

The California Section of the American Chemical Society recognizes that the Chemistry Olympiad is a rigorous competition that goes well beyond the normal high school chemistry curriculum. High school teachers whose students participate in the Olympiad spend significant additional time and effort to prepare their students. To recognize and encourage these teachers, the Section will offer a scholarship for a high school chemistry teacher participating in the Olympiad in our Section to attend one of two conferences focused on teaching chemistry. The two conferences are the ChemEd conference held in odd years and the ACS Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) held in even years. Both are week-long events held during the summer at colleges in various locations around the country, and both offer a unique opportunity to have comprehensive and in-depth interaction with other educators.

  1. The Section shall reimburse an Olympiad high school chemistry teacher up to $2,500 to attend one of these conferences. The school must be accredited and located within the geographical boundaries of the California Section of the American Chemical Society (see list of counties below).
  2. The Grant Recipient shall be selected as follows. The names of every interested teacher with students participating in the local exam that year will be submitted for a drawing. Teachers who have been participating for at least five years but less than ten shall have their name submitted twice and teachers who have participated for ten or more years shall have their name submitted three times. The drawing will be held in March after completion of the local exam and the name that is pulled will be awarded this scholarship. The award is personal to the teacher whose name is drawn and the teacher cannot transfer the award to another teacher.
  3. The Grant Recipient shall submit receipts for all expenditures over $25 or higher threshold established by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Travel by car shall be reimbursed at the rate set by the IRS.
  4. Teachers may only win this award once.

Winners of the California Section Olympiad Teacher Scholarship

2025 Dr. Patricia Theodosopoulos, St. Mary’s College High School