About Us
ACE MENTOR PROGRAM Architecture - Construction - Engineering
The ACE Mentor Program of Washington DC (ACE DC), founded in 2001, is a no-cost after-school program that prioritizes workforce development for high school students by connecting them with experts from the design and construction industry through mentorship, a robust scholarship program, and much more.
ACE DC addresses pressing workforce needs, offers a range of exciting opportunities for students, and plays a crucial role in bridging the skills gap, with continuous mentor opportunities from high school through to full-time employment
Our Mission
To engage, excite, and enlighten high school students to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction through mentoring and continued support for their advancement into the industry.
Primary Goals
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Help build a large, diverse, and better-prepared workforce.
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Prioritize engaging students and communities traditionally underrepresented in the industry.
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Assist and guide students by providing scholarships, internships, and mentoring as they pursue career pathways into the industry.
Core Values
Inclusion – We will nurture and value the diversity of backgrounds, identities, talents and beliefs of each individual involved in our program.
Collaboration – We believe a spirit of mutually beneficial collaboration will produce the greatest results and maximize our volunteer and fiscal resources.
Excellence – We aspire to deliver the highest quality and most impactful mentor program and commit to approach our work with fairness and honesty.
How it works.
Through hands-on activities and informal presentations, mentors engage students in learning about the integrated construction
industry, and they inspire and guide student teams to complete and present their final design project.
Professionals from the built industry go to area high schools after school for bi-monthly, 90 minute ACE sessions. During these sessions, they engage in hands on, project based learning and teach students about the ACE fields. For the second half of the program year, students prepare a design project for the Final Presentation Night. Here, they compete against other ACE teams as they showcase their design ideas, plans and process.
ACE not only engages sponsors and volunteer mentors to expose students to real-world opportunities, it financially supports each student's continued success through scholarships and grants.
Since inception, ACE has awarded over $14 million in scholarships to promising participants.
Attracting students to real professions.
Who better to inspire a new generation of young people to start careers in an industry than the professionals currently shaping it? ACE uses working professionals to reach job seekers for the following vocations:
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Architects
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Interior Designers
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Landscape Architects
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Mechanical Engineers
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Structural Engineers
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Electrical Engineers
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Environmental Engineers
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Civil Engineers
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Construction Managers
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College & University Representatives
Beyond the textbooks.
By working with real professionals in real work environments, ACE students receive an invaluable hands-on education — they learn to understand the day-to-day workings of a business by living it, experiencing it, not merely reading about it.