Our Program

Students involved in the ACE program work alongside volunteer professionals from local design and construction firms. Mentors provide guidance to students as they take field trips, visit industry offices, and tour educational campuses. ACE mentors represent many industry disciplines: architecture, engineering, interior design, construction.

A typical annual calendar of programs for ACE students includes several field trips:

• University, technical school, trade school, or community college campus
• Architecture, engineering, or contractor’s office
• Active construction site

Through involvement with the ACE program, students create and design projects connected to “real-world” situations. Program participants are able to experience the process of transforming ideas from abstract concepts into the buildings, structures and spaces that shape our community.

Meetings are typically held on a biweekly basis for 90 minutes. The ACE Mentor program runs from October through the end of April each academic year.

Mentors

Our mentors are volunteers working locally throughout the industry in the St Louis Area, approximately 30 will register in any given year. We like to have as many disciplines represented as possible so there is someone to connect with a student whatever his or her interest may be. We have several of architects and engineers volunteering and are hoping to have more representation from the construction industry as well!

We ask that mentors attend as many meetings as they can. We understand that project deadlines and travel will always take priority, but the best mentoring happens when our students really connect with and get to know their mentors throughout the school year. All mentors must register on the website. After completing the application, a short training module, 5-10 minutes, will be required. Registration and training are required every year. Once the registration and training are complete, a background check is ordered. Once the process is complete, mentors are typically assigned to one of our teams and are ready to go. We also have a mentor kick-off meeting at the beginning of the year and a lessons learned meeting at the end of the year to discuss best practices that help us continually improve and evolve the program to meet student needs
and interests.