Timing and Location

Timeline of Events

Below is the general timeline of events. These are subject to change based on cohort needs, but should provide a general idea of the format of the Summer Institute. A welcome dinner will also take place on Monday.

Getting to St. Mary's, MD

• Transportation to St. Mary's College of Maryland will be provided to all team members as needed

• This support will include airfare and/or mileage appropriate to the distance of the participants' home institution (based on budget limits)  

  • Airport service will include DCA (Reagan National) and BWI (Baltimore) 

• Travel will be coordinated by the CLC Innovators Program Coordinator (Sanders)

  • By centralizing travel planning, the coordinator will be able to provide ground transport to and from airports when possible

Housing and Dinning 

Student Worker Support 

Teams must include 1 student worker

• • Student workers can be undergraduate or graduate students depending on the institutional context of the team.

  • Students will be compensated out of the project grant for their work during the summer ($3,000 stipend*) and for implementation support during one semester/term of the year following the Summer Institute ($1,700 stipend*). 

  • The job description for this student learning assistant position  can be found in the linked document. Students from each institutional team that are selected for this position will receive HR paperwork to complete.  

*See additional notes about student stipends in the job description.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What days should I travel?

You should arrive at St. Mary’s College of Maryland on Monday, July 21st, 2025 before 5:00pm. You will be able to leave campus anytime on Saturday, July 26th, 2025 by 5:00pm.    

How do I get to campus?

If you are flying to Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, or arriving by bus or train to these cities, we will provide transportation from the airport/bus/train station to St. Mary’s College. We will coordinate college van/shuttle services for individual Summer Institute participants to these airports/stations as needed.  

What are my campus parking options?

If you are driving to the Summer Institute, you will be able to park in the parking lots right next to the Summer Institute housing complex (Waring Commons). Summer campus parking is free with no visitor parking passes required, but be sure to avoid designated disability access and utility vehicle spaces that require special parking passes. You will be able to park in most student, faculty, and staff designated parking lots on campus, but avoid named (reserved) parking spots. The college’s Office of Public Safety (https://www.smcm.edu/publicsafety/) manage campus parking services, including issuing parking passes and citations.    

How will travel assistance be provided?

The CLC Innovators Program will provide travel assistance to Summer Institute participants as either vehicle mileage reimbursements (with cost limits), pre-paid flight/train/bus services through the college’s travel agent(s), commercial taxi/shuttle/ride-sharing services reimbursements (with cost limits), or a combination of these methods based on program budget limits for providing travel assistance for participants. The program cannot cover car rentals. Be sure to save all your original receipts and travel stubs to submit for reimbursement. Most meals during the Summer Institute will be directly provided, but Summer Institute participants will be responsible for their own meals during a few excursions/events and meals during travel days. They will receive, and must complete, additional paperwork for travel assistance to comply with college travel and business service policies.     

For the 2026 Summer Institute, travel assistance for long-distance transportation will be limited to teams with high need as determine by their institutional resources. The CLC Innovators Program expect most institutional teams to seek travel funding from their department or institution to cover long-distance transportation costs (e.g., flights, trains, mileage, etc.), but our program will provide on-campus housing and most meals for participants during the 2026 Summer Institute. This arrangement is a form of cost sharing that allows selected teams to attend the summer institute and enable our program to operate effectively within its budget limits.      

Baggage fees and other personal charges.

Due to the constantly changing policies of airlines in recent years, our travel agency only book core flights (seats on the plane), they do not cover incidental fees such as baggage fees. Participants in our program will need to pay any incidental fees for flights upfront such as baggage fees which typically range between $30 - $60 each flight depending on the rules of each airline company. Some airline companies do not charge fees for 1-2 checked bags, but we use different airlines to book flights based on the availability of flight options for program participants. You will be able to determine if there is a baggage fee once the travel agency books your flights and provides you with the flight agenda. If there is travel funding remaining after the Summer Institute, the program may be able to reimburse participants for 1 checked bag (for one or both days of flights) after the Summer Institute. Be sure to save your baggage fee receipts and travel stubs if you need to pay such fees when checking into the airport for pre-approved flights. These receipts and travel stubs will need to be submitted to our program after the Summer Institute if we are able to reimburse you for them. The CLC Innovators Program will NOT reimburse you for travel insurance and personal charges such as entertainment and travel to visit family and friends in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region.

Are bed linens, towels, and other toiletries provided?

Participants in the Summer Institute should bring their own towels and toiletries, including face, hand, and bath towels and personal grooming items such as soap, shower gel, shampoo/conditioner, toothbrush, and toothpaste.  

Participants are encouraged to bring their own bed linens (for XL twin size mattresses) if they have special needs beyond the light bed linens that will be provided through our Beantown Bedding vendor. One standard pillow will also be provided to each participant, but feel free to bring your own for additional comfort. The Beantown Bedding linens are eco-disposable and laundry-free XL Twin Sheet Sets that include 1 flat sheet, 1 fitted sheet, and 1 pillow case in each set. We are also providing you a light blanket from this vendor. These are plant-based products that are biodegradable and they can be used for 1-2 weeks. You can learn more about them using the links below.

https://www.beantownbedding.com/collections/wholesale-orders/products/laundry-free-linens-case 

https://www.beantownbedding.com/collections/wholesale-orders/products/eco-disposable-blanket-case 

Do note that there will be designated times for shuttle/car runs to local stores if there are personal items that participants need to purchase. These stores include Target, JCPenney, Belk, and CVS. Pillows can be purchased at some of these stores locally, but XL twin size sheet sets and blankets are usually only available during back-to-school sales in August, so if you want to purchase your own XL twin sheet set and blanket from a different company online, please do so before the summer institute and bring them with you. Summers are usually hot on campus in July (85F - 90F), thus the light bed linens from Beantown Bedding are often used by the college for summer programs. However, feel free to bring your own bed linens for additional comfort, especially if you want a bed comforter instead of a light blanket, or if you need a hypoallergenic pillow.      

Laboratory Support

In the afternoons each day during the Summer Institute, teams will work to practice and troubleshoot their chemistry experimental methods. Each team will be assigned a teaching lab location equipped with the materials/chemicals, equipment, glassware, and waste storage needed for their specific laboratory project (this information will be collected from teams prior to the Summer Institute). The following sections provide information about the SMCM laboratory spaces, which may assist teams in identifying the laboratory projects they wish to develop.

Important Notice: 

You will need PPE at the Summer Institute. The program will provide goggles and disposable lab aprons and gloves (nitrile and latex) at the Summer Institute. If you have particular items you prefer, please bring them.  Laboratories and classrooms in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at St. Mary’s College of Maryland usually run cold during the summer, so you may want to bring your own traditional lab coat (cloth-based and typically heavier than disposable lab aprons).  

Laboratory Spaces

There are 4 main teaching laboratories in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry:

• General Chemistry Lab (capacity 24); fumehoods available

• Organic Chemistry Lab (capacity 16) and attached NMR Room; fumehoods available

• Physical Chemistry Laboratory (capacity 16) and attached Advanced Instrument Room; limited fumehoods

• Biochemistry Laboratory (capacity 16) and attached Tissue Culture Room; limited fumehoods

There are 2 specialized  instrumentation laboratories:

• Synthesis Lab

• Measurement Lab

Specialized instruments and equipment in faculty laboratories may be available with pre-approval.    

Materials and Chemicals

Chemicals and materials necessary to run the team's laboratory methods at the Summer Institute will be provided (within reason; we have a budget to adhere to after all!). We will work with teams to identify an exhaustive list of the supplies they will need to effectively troubleshoot their procedures.

• • Common chemicals

  • Common glassware

  • Specialty chemicals/glassware will be purchased, when possible, on a case by case basis

  • Gas supplies - ordered from a regional supplier 

Instrumentation

The SMCM Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has a long list of instrumentation that will be available to CLC Innovators. Again,  we will work with teams to identify an exhaustive list of the instruments they will/may need to effectively troubleshoot their procedures. The list of instrumentation housed at SMCM includes (if something is not on this list that you would need, please reach out to co-PI Dan Chase at dtchase@smcm.edu to discuss possibilities):

• JEOL JNM-ECZ400R 400 MHz NMR Spectrometer

• Cary 100 UV-Vis Spectrophotometer

• Jasco 1500 CD Spectrometer with accessories for temperature control, CD of Solid Samples, and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) measurements

• PTI HORIBA Quantamaster 8000 Spectrofluorometer with NIR and KSPHERE Quantum Yield Accessories

• Ametek SpectroMIDEX X–Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer

• Bruker D8 ADVANCE ECO Powder X–Ray Diffractometer

• Thermo–Nicolet 6700 FTIR with Specac ATR cell and Quantitative Liquid–State Accessories

• Thermo–Nicolet iN10 MX FTIR Miscroscope with Computer Controlled Stage

• Jasco 4200 FTIR with  ATR Accessory

• HORIBA XploRA Plus Dual–Laser Confocal Raman Microscope

• MBRAUN UniLab Glovebox

• Vigor GO Standard 1200 Glovebox

• Vigor SciLab Glovebox

• Perkin Elmer AA Spectrometer with Graphite  Furnace 

• HP Agilent 7890A Gas Chromatograph

• TA Instruments SDTQ600 TGA / DSC with Thermo–Fisher TGA–IR  Accessory

• TA Instruments Q5000 SA Water Adsorption Analyzer

• Syngene GBox Chemi XX9 High Resolution Imaging System

• DeNovix CellDrop Cell Counter

• Implen Nanophotometer

• Raman Spectrometer

• Teledyne CombiFlash Rf 150 System

• Thermo Labsystems Multskan Ascent Microplate Reader

• Anton Paar Monowave 50 Synthesis Reactor

• Anton Paar Monowave 200 Synthesis Reactor

• Johnson Matthey Magnetic Susceptibility Balance

• Sorvall Legend RT Centrifuge 

• Sorvall ST 40 Refrigerated Centrifuge 

• Ecopia HMS-3000 Hall Measurement System

• Oriel Instruments LCS-100 Solar Simulator

• FUJIFILM Dimatix Materials Printer DMP-2850

• NanoSurf NiaoAFM Atomic Force Microscope

• Sonicator

• CO2 Incubator

• Biosafety Cabinet

• Eppendorf 5430 Refrigerated Microcentrifuge

• Varioskan LUX Multimode Microplate Reader

Common Equipment

• Portable UV/Vis Spectrometers 

• pH Meters

• Water Baths

• Analytical Balances 

• Top Loader Balances

• Diaphram Vacum Pumps

• Speed Vacum Apparatus 

• Vortex Mixers

• Heating Blocks

• Hot-Stirrer Plates

• Pipetman sets

• Counter Top Culture Rocker

• Microcentrifuges (Non-refrigerated)

• Electrophoresis units with power supplier

• Ovens and muffle furnaces

Additional Opportunities

Because down time is a critical component to building community, the leadership team will be providing multiple opportunities for informal gatherings including the following (subject to change):

• Waterfront Equipment and Facilities

• Access to Athletics and Recreation Facilities