Admission & Financial Aid Liam Arce '24

Hi everyone,

My name is Liam Arce, and I am a rising senior. I'm from North Andover Massachusetts, a suburb north of Boston. I am a chemistry major, and my favorite class in the major is Physical Chemistry (CHEM-361). On campus, I work as an EMT for ACEMS (Amherst College Emergency Medical Services), usually on weekday nights and weekends. I am the Director of Operations for ACEMS, so I spend time on those administrative duties as well. In my free time, I workout and go on trips with my friends to the surrounding area, which has a lot of fun places to hang out. Some of my favorite things to do are go bowling, hiking, or out to eat in Northampton.

Today I’ll talk a little bit about my experience in STEM these past few years. Introductory chemistry was two semesters during my freshman year, and while they were on zoom, I found them to be very well taught. The professors were very engaging, and did their best to use interactive online modules to illustrate more difficult concepts.

My favorite chemistry class was inorganic chemistry. We did a lot of lab work in synthesis, which is always my preference. At the beginning of each lab, the professor would pull up an article he had recently come upon, about an experiment recently tried for the first time. For example, one article talked about the use of a certain type of crystal that absorbs greenhouse gasses, and could be used to fight climate change. In order for it to be viable though, one had to ensure that it could absorb a certain amount of gas per amount of crystal.

Despite the whole concept and experiment being novel, he would have us talk through the paper, and try it out in the lab. I personally loved that approach, because it was an example of a time where even for the professor, it was a new and exciting experience, and he was with us every step of the way. 

Liam

This week I’d like to talk about my experience at the dining hall. We only have one dining hall on campus, and so if there’s someone you don’t see very often due to having different classes or extracurriculars, you will definitely see them at Val at some point. Even if I’m tired and just want to eat, I'm always happy when I bump into a friend at Val—those random encounters are really nice, even during a really busy day. 

In terms of the food, I love how Val takes student feedback into account. Every year since I arrived, they’ve sent out a survey asking for our feedback on the meals. I'm not always with the popular consensus, but when I am, I’ve noticed my least favorite meals have been phased out, and my favorite meals have remained or been innovated on. 

The Val staff already have a super hard job of feeding 2,000 students + staff visitors and some professors three times a week, for virtually every day of the year. If I had that job, I doubt I’d be super receptive to student feedback on the food, but they are, and I think it’s just another example of how much Amherst College staff care. See you next week.