Cleveland

About Us

The ACE Mentor Program of Cleveland was founded in 2008 at John Hay School of Architecture and Design. Beginning with a group of 10 dedicated mentors and 20 eager students, the Cleveland affiliate has had tremendous success and expects to reach more than 100 students at three schools by 2010.

ACE is designed for high school and junior high students interested in pursuing a career in architecture, construction, or engineering. Local professionals volunteer their time to teach the students about the construction industry through bi-weekly mentoring sessions. Students learn about different aspects of construction, career development, and the importance of furthering their education and training. ACE students gain a new sense of the industry after participating in the program.

Some recent ACE Cleveland Affiliate Milestones include:

• 2008 John Hay Pilot Program
• 2008-2009 John Hay 15-week program
  • University Hospitals Neonatal Intensive Care Unit student tour
• 2009 John Hay Final Presentation Night
• 2009 James F. Rhodes High School Pilot Program

An ACE Mentor Program of Cleveland Board of Directors has been developed to will assist in fundraising, expanding the ACE program to new schools, mentor recruitment, scholarship selection, and board financial management for the Cleveland Affiliate.

Our Team Projects

At the core of the ACE program is the development of a final project created by students working in collaboration with mentors. Some affiliates structure their entire curriculum around the final project, and others only begin work on the projects after several preliminary sessions. With the ACE program being new in Cleveland, mentors decided that holding preliminary mentoring sessions would be beneficial to give students the opportunity to grasp some of the basic concepts of construction and design. This approach proved to be beneficial to students who were new to ACE and also gave mentors the chance to expound on more complicated aspects of the industry.

Students were given a Request for Proposal to redesign and develop the existing Rockefeller Lake Park in Cleveland’s University Circle into an Outdoor Family and Recreation Center. Students were able to use creativity in these designs to make their projects unique. However, the RFP indicated essential design requirements which were to be included in the final design.

• Pedestrian Bridge
• Playground
• Tennis Courts
• Park lot expansion
• Maintenance building
• Concession stand
• MEP upgrades
• Lake excavation and rehab
• Service drives

Students designed the pedestrian bridge by implementing skills learned in the structural engineering lessons. They created electronic three-dimensional models of the bridge, concession stand, and maintenance building using Google Sketch-Up. Students created a three-dimensional contour map of the park designed to show varying grades of the land, layout of the new park features, and the placement of new paths and service drives.

Final design projects were completed and presented at the End-of-Year Presentation Night. Students prepared for the event by creating company names, logos, and mission statements. All of the hard work was reflected in engaging in presentation which were very well received by an audience of more than 150 guests.

Participate in ACE!

If you’d like to experience ACE’s challenges, opportunities and rewards for yourself, just contact the ACE leader listed in the upper right-hand corner of this page.

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