Generation Next

ACE Mentor Program prepares high school students with solid career goals.

By Debra Wood

The Architecture, Construction and Engineering Mentor Program offers high-school students a chance to discover a range of opportunities in design and construction – and scholarships to help them achieve their goals.

“This program has taken kids with an interest in building and shown them being an engineer is more than being a math geek,” says Denise Richardson, managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York.

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More than 50,000 high school students nationally have participated in the ACE Mentor Program since its inception in 1995, with 9,300 taking part in it this year. The organization’s 63 affiliates serve 136 communities. It has 22 national sponsors and has given $6.4 million in scholarships since 1996.

The $230-billion annual construction industry will create more than 1 million jobs by 2012, according to information at the ACE Mentor Program Web site. And John Woodman, director of development for the ACE Mentor Programs of New York and New Jersey, says that even in the poor economy, there is a need to groom up-and-coming professionals.

“It’s a cyclical industry,” Woodman says. “Our hope is the economy will turn around.”

Louis J. Coletti, president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers’ Association in New York, agrees. “There is always a need for a program like this,” he says. “The industry has historically had problems recruiting individuals to come in, and an ongoing program as successful as ACE is critical for bringing young, new talent into the industry.”

Coletti adds that the cyclical nature of the design and construction industries, with their high peaks and deep valleys, keeps some young people away.

More than 50,000 high school students nationally have participated in the ACE Mentor Program since its inception in 1995, with 9,300 taking part in it this year.

“Up until October, when the financial collapse came, there were many other industries where the economic variations were not as deep,” Coletti says. “I think the underpinning of the economy has changed and, hopefully, it will accrue to our benefit.”

Woodman says more education is needed to convince guidance counselors and the general public that construction requires skills that go beyond a willingness to get one’s hands dirty.

“For many years, those of us in the construction and design field have been competing for students against Wall Street and real estate and making deals,” Richardson says. “This program has helped us get kids away from the Wall Street mindset. It’s a fantastic way to channel kids interested in buildings and construction.”

Turner Construction Co., headquartered in New York, is a national sponsor of the ACE program, and company president Peter Davoren is on the organization’s national board of directors. Turner employees serve as mentors, and the company frequently hires young people who have completed the program.

“In order for our industry to continue to grow, we need to be part of the ACE program,” says Hilton Smith, senior vice president of community affairs for Turner. “Without the ACE program, we will not have enough architects, engineers and construction workers to build the infrastructure of our country and the world, even in this economy.”

Cristina Martinez, an associate with the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti in New York, another national sponsor, says there is a tremendous projected shortage of architects and engineers.

“Other countries are beating us to the punch on training engineers and promoting the professions of construction management,” Martinez says. “The [ACE] program works.”

ACE mentors benefit, too, Martinez says.

“They develop personally and professionally at a much higher rate, and they learn leadership skills and network with other mentors from other firms,” she adds. “It’s a tremendous tool to develop our own staff, outside of designing structures.”

Smith says Turner recognizes that ACE graduates share a commitment to construction, and that may give them an advantage over others when the company brings on a new employee.

One of ACE’s goals is to attract underserved populations, Woodman says. About 85% of the New York City participants hail from minority populations, and 50% are female.

In Connecticut, approximately 250 students participate, says Maria Loitz, president of the ACE Connecticut board of directors.

Design and construction professionals from the community mentor high-school students participating in the program, meeting after school for 15 sessions from October through May, often at mentors’ offices or jobsites.

“ACE exposes kids to people who love what they do, enjoy their careers and have a great professional life,” Richardson says.

In the program, architects, engineers and construction managers describe their role in the construction process. Then the mentors and their teams of students complete a project design, transforming the youngsters’ ideas into reality.

This year, the Hartford, Conn., ACE students designed a kindergarten building for a school in Ghana. One of the former students, now a college civil engineering student, will fly to Africa this summer to oversee its construction.

The ACE program’s 63 affiliates serve 136 communities. It has 22 national sponsors and has given $6.4 million in scholarships since 1996.

The ACE Program offers the students college scholarships. Last year, the New York affiliate awarded $113,000 in scholarships, and this year, it will give out $125,000, bringing the total to more than $1 million distributed to students since the program’s inception in 1995 after Charles H. Thornton, founding principal of Thornton Tomasetti, came up with the ACE concept.

In addition, outside entities, such as Manhattan College and the Contractors’ Association of Greater New York, offer ACE participants scholarships, which will amount to about $75,000 this year.

The Connecticut affiliate has provided about $20,000 annually in scholarships during each of the past 10 years.

“We’ve had kids go through the program, go on to college and graduate, and they are now working in ACE firms,” says Woodman, adding that several have returned to the program as volunteer mentors.

Managing projects in the Big Apple  Winston Warner, a project manager at Hudson Meridian Construction Group in New York, is one of those mentors. He completed the ACE Mentor Program in 1996 and now serves as president of the ACE Alumni Association.

“My experience with ACE taught me a lot about construction and architecture, but at the same time, it opened doors for my career,” says Warner . “One of the reasons I got into this field is I always thought I would have a job, even in a slow economy. You cannot outsource engineers. You cannot build a building from another country.”

Warner expects that the sour economy with fewer jobs in other industries will attract students to the ACE program and entice them to consider design and construction careers.

“Their idea of construction is the worker in the field,” Warner says. “We come in and explain the other layers you don’t see, the management and the potential salaries you can make. The kids are savvy about careers and what makes money.”

Warner earned a civil and environmental engineering degree at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While a freshman, he contacted ACE again about an internship. Each summer while in college, he interned for the Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey, working on interesting projects.

“By the time I started taking civil engineering classes, so many things made sense,” Warner says. “I had already done a few things in the field and been in meetings where they discussed the technical aspects of building buildings. I was able to excel at Michigan because of that.”

Warner joined Columbia Construction in Mount Vernon, N.Y., as a project engineer after graduation and rehabilitated Interstate 684 in Westchester, N.Y. Recognizing he preferred buildings to roads, he moved to Hudson Meridian about 4.5 years ago and has now completed several condominium projects.

He says his work “has been exciting over the last couple of years, and I attribute all of that success to the ACE.”

Mentoring in Connecticut Tony Kellogg, assistant engineer with Turner Construction Co. in Harford, Conn., began the ACE program at the urging of his mother. He never heard in school about construction careers, other than being an in-the-field construction worker.

He says he enjoyed ACE so much his junior year that he gave up baseball to attend during his senior year

“Going into it, I didn’t realize the different components of construction,” Kellogg says. “It gave me a better understanding of what the construction industry is.”

Kellogg completed the ACE program in 2003 and obtained a scholarship from ACE to study civil engineering at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. He later changed his major to construction management. Kellogg interned for two years with Turner before the company hired him full time in 2007 as an assistant engineer.

“ACE not only helped direct me on a path of what I wanted to do in life, it actually helped me get this job as well,” Kellogg says.

Kellogg is currently working on Turner’s $184-million, 318,000-sq-ft Saint Francis Hospital addition in Hartford. He receives submittals and builds the job on paper, taking a job through the approval process and coordinating to ensure everything fits when it comes to the job.

Convinced about the benefits of ACE, Kellogg now volunteers as a mentor.

“It brings it full circle for me, and I realize how much ACE helped me and the dedication it takes to be a mentor,” Kellogg adds.

ACE students in Hartford, Conn. this year designed a kindergarten school for children in Ghana. A former student who worked on the program will oversee its construction in Africa this summer.

Designing a future Amanda Lamontagne, an intern architect with Svigals + Partners in New Haven, Conn., participated in the ACE program during her high-school junior and senior years, in 2002 and 2003. She says the program gave her confidence that she could become an architect. She graduated in 2008 from Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., after receiving a four-year scholarship from ACE.

“ACE opened up my eyes,” says Lamontagne of Cheshire, Conn.. “I didn’t realize at the time how important it was.”

Now, as an intern, she sees the people who mentored her at professional events. She thanks them and hopes in the future to become a mentor, although she still finds the reality of working in the profession a bit remarkable, saying, “I’m actually on the other side now.”

Steady work right out of high school Gilbert Arruda of Newark, N.J., took a different approach. With family members employed in the construction industry, he wanted to explore the field and learn more about the trades. Arruda completed the ACE program in 2005.

“It was great,” Arrunda says.

After graduation, he immediately landed a job through the Steam Fitters Local Union 475 in Warren, N.J. He now works at Frank McBride Mechanical Services in Paterson, N.J. His most recent project is installing HVAC equipment at a new dormitory for Kean University in Union, N.J.

“I took a more hands-on approach, rather than sitting behind a desk,” Arruda says. “It’s crazy to see a building get built out of nowhere. It’s pretty cool.”

Solidifying career decisions Andre Morgan knew he wanted to be an engineer but was not sure what kind.

“As we went through the program, we did a little bit of everything, and it focused my mind,” Morgan says. “It saved me time later on during college.”

Morgan completed a work-study program with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as part of the ACE program and was able to observe engineers at work, which solidified his ultimate decision to pursue mechanical engineering. He completed the ACE program in 2007. He is now studying mechanical engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark and interns with Thornton Tomesetti.

“People don’t understand what engineering entails,” Morgan says. “When I tell them what engineers do, they are more excited and understand that everything around them is affected by people called engineers.”

Morgan often returns to his high school and talks with students about his activities.

“ACE is good whether you have the idea you like engineering or not,” Morgan says. “It opens a lot of doors and possibilities. It helps you make good connections with people. All of the opportunities I have had are because of ACE.”

Making her way in America Nubia Castano, an assistant project manager at Hudson Meridian, is currently working on the Fulton Nassau Crossroads Program for the New York City Economic Development Corp. She is overseeing everything from marketing to construction on the restoration of the facades and storefronts on Fulton Street from the World Trade Center to the South Street Seaport. Before that, she finished a 97-unit condominium project in Manhattan.

Castano signed up for the ACE program shortly after arriving in the United States from Columbia. Architecture had always interested her, and her guidance counselor told her ACE would help her learn about the industry and present an opportunity to network with people.

“It was an extraordinary experience,” says Castano, who enjoyed meeting and working with the mentors, but what really impressed her was ACE’s commitment to her. She earned a scholarship but left college when her son was born. ACE officials tracked her down and reinstituted her scholarship.

“They reached out to me,” Castano says. “I was able to finish, network and find a job.”

Castano completed a degree in construction management from the New York City College of Technology. She is now studying facilities management. She stayed at her first job with Mancini Duffy, a New York architecture firm, for a couple of years, but she wanted to focus on construction and moved to Hudson Meridian.

Although she says she’s comfortable with her career choice, she acknowledges other women often feel intimidated by the construction field. She attributes ACE with giving her confidence and the opportunity to ask questions and receive honest answers.

“If it wasn’t for the program, I would never have been able to achieve so much,” Castano says.