The ACE Mentor Program - Learn why so many people have become mentors.

The ACE Mentor Program was founded in 1995 as an innovative way of attracting students, particularly minorities, women and the less privileged into engineering profession. It is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to engage, excite and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in the design/build construction industry through mentoring; and to support their continued advancement in the industry through scholarships and grants.

The program relies on mentors, professionals from leading design and construction firms, who devote countless off-duty hours and personal energy to introduce students to a broad range of people, projects and career possibilities within the construction industry.

In 1991, working with the Explorer Program of the Boy Scouts of America, the program began with one team of thirty students, mentored by volunteers from four firms. Year-by-year, participation grew and in 1995, the independent nonprofit ACE Mentor Program, Inc. was formed.

The program growth has been phenomenal:

• From one team of 30 students in one city mentored by volunteers from four firms in 1991
• To teams in twenty-eight cities with more than 1800 students and 600 professional mentors in 2003
• To teams in sixty-four cities with more than 3,600 students and 1200 mentors in 2004
• To teams in eighty cities with more than 5,000 students and 1500 mentors in 2006
• To teams in ninety-three cities with more than 7,500 students and 2100 mentors in 2007
• To teams in one hundred and thirty-six cities with more than 9,300 students and over 2500 mentors in 2008

Since 1995, more than 50,000 students have had the opportunity to participate in the ACE Mentoring program. 80% are minority, 52% are female and 92% go on to 2 or 4 year colleges, training or apprenticeship programs.

All activities on the part of the mentoring firms are donated by the firms.

The Program
Students are recruited from both public and private high schools, with special efforts made to reach those women and minorities who might otherwise not be aware of the challenges and rewards of careers in the design and construction industries. Students selected for the program are divided into teams of twenty to thirty. They work under the guidance of mentors from firms representing owners, architects, construction managers and engineers (civil and mechanical). Teams are also affiliated with a college or university.

Teams meet at least fifteen times during the course of the school year in an after-school program. Initial meetings involve visits to the offices of the involved firms where the scopes of their activities are discussed and a tour of the facilities conducted. Each team then selects a design project that may require site acquisition, as well as the drawing of plans, the building of models, and other related activities. Students go through the entire design process, with the tasks they perform for their “clients” modeled on the real-life activities of their mentoring firms. Among the skills they learn are drawing to scale and estimating the cost of a job, skills that their mentors utilize in performing their daily professional duties.

At the end of the school year, there is a major culminating event at which all teams present their projects, much as actual design teams would present to their clients.

ACE Scholarships
Scholarship funds are raised through local events to help graduating seniors defray some of the costs of attending college. Each graduating senior is given the opportunity to apply for an ACE Mentor Program scholarship and a committee, with input from team mentors, selects the scholarship winners. Since 1996, scholarships totaling $8.2 million have been awarded.