ACE mentor & and career evolution The evolution of ACE mentor

ACE Mentor and career evolution:

The evolution of ACE Mentor

Since 1994, the ACE Mentor Program of America has played an active role in the career evolution of thousands of youths who aspire to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction. The program originated from a critical problem identified by industry leaders in Manhattan — a lack of interested students applying to AEC-related higher education programs.

A passage from ACE founder Charlie Thornton’s biography, “A Life of Elegant Solutions,” states that Manhattan Engineering School was at risk of closing until the Board of Advisors and a group of New York City firms acted quickly to reach out to minorities and women to interest them in architecture, engineering, and construction. This resulted in a team of 30 students who were mentored by volunteers from several firms. Those firms also provided summer internships for the students. Eventually, this “solution” was formalized in a meeting about taking the program to the next level, in which Lou Switzer, an African American architect with a 100-person firm at the time, suggested the program be named ACE — an acronym that combined each of the career pathways and a term “for someone who was good at what they do.” The group agreed, and over two decades later, the ACE Mentor Program continues to thrive across the country. Today, ACE serves over 10,000 students annually across 75 affiliates in 38 states, plus Toronto. The national program consists of local affiliates with their own boards of directors, program leaders, and mentor/student teams.

Each local team is set up to emulate an actual design team, with students guided through a mock design project by architect, engineer, construction management and tradesperson mentors. Mentors assist the students as they work toward a final project, introducing them to the careers, industry vocabulary, and various roles companies play in the industry.

Over the years, ACE has awarded over $25 million in scholarships to alumni. More than 70% of ACE seniors annually enter a college or skilled trades program with an industry-related focus, 69% of students served are minorities, over 40% are female, and 25% of ACE seniors entering college are first-generation college students. Many alumni remain active participants in the program through the scholarships they receive, relationships they develop with their mentors, and future employment opportunities they exercise — such as internships and post-college jobs.

Above Campers for CU Denver’s 2022 Architecture Camp

So, by the scope of the original issue identified by ACE Mentor’s founders, it’s clear that the program is helping the industry attract future talent. But how does this connect to a broad topic such as “career evolution”?

ACE and Career Evolution

Mentorship is a critical component of career evolution. It’s often a mentor who brings clarity to unclear situations or helps a mentee discover untapped skills that can take a career to the next level.

Mentor Perspective

What we have found in ACE is that mentorship supports the career evolution of mentors just as much as the students.

To dive deeper into this notion, ACE spoke with Greyson Rubin, who was recently named the 2022 Outstanding Mentor by ACE Mentor of Greater Kansas City. Rubin participated in the ACE Dallas program during high school and decided to pursue a career in architecture based on his experience.

From Rubin’s perspective, “Career evolution is the enduring process of going from a novice in a field to a subject expert over time. As you begin to evolve as an architect, you transition from first identifying knowledge you don’t know to being able to find solutions and opportunities in those gaps through experience gathered over time. Ultimately, others begin to turn to you for guidance, while still being open to learning from emerging trends and technology.

“What ACE has helped me to better understand is the strong role that mentoring and teaching possess in that process. Seeking out opportunities to mentor helps to solidify that ever-expanding knowledge, while also opening the mentor up to new perspectives to create more innovative design solutions. Still being early in my career as an architect, ACE has allowed me to propel the process of career evolution, as I am given the opportunities to share my experiences and learn from the creative perspectives of younger students.”

While Rubin’s career evolution is unique, thousands of other ACE mentors undoubtedly share a similar view on the impact of mentoring on their own careers. With their help, ACE provides the year-round enrichment that contributes to the career evolution of the students ACE serves.

Student and Alumni Perspective

For example, the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York hosts an annual Planning for Architecture School workshop to help graduating seniors understand what to expect in college. ACE alumni who are enrolled in architecture programs at New York colleges and universities share their perspectives on questions ranging from “how to approach a professor with a question” to “how do I get my belongings to an upstate school.” Siam Suleri, a speaker on the panel, shared, “Even when I thought I was prepared, there are so many things I wish I’d known before the beginning of architecture school. It was a joy imparting this knowledge with the next generation of architecture students, as well as learning about other schools from the adjacent speakers.” Suleri is an incoming second-year architecture student at CCNY’s Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture.

Amy Chen, an attendee, shared, “By attending the Planning for Architecture School panel, I obtained insider advice on how to best prepare for a successful, fulfilling, and smooth transition into an AEC-specific college experience. Specifically, I understood the importance of balancing my workload and personal life with maximized efficiency, dynamism, and ultimately achieving my goal to make a difference in the AEC industry and give back to the community.” Amy is an alumna of the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York, a top winner of the CMiC-Allen Berg Memorial Scholarship and an incoming firstyear architecture student at MIT.

In addition to workshops, ACE Mentor has expanded programming to include the ACE Summer Experience, which provides high school students and ACE alumni a paid opportunity to gain perspective on what the work environment is like for an AEC professional. Students and alumni also can attend summer camp at Fallingwater, Colorado University’s Denver School of Architecture, or Jefferson University College of Architecture and the Built Environment for a variety of experiences.

Above ACE Mentor Program of Greater Boston – Suffolk

Above ACE Mentor Program of Greater Baltimore.

Career Evolution and Intentional Impact

As ACE Mentor expands and strengthens programming to set up students for long-term success, the ACE National Board has recognized a need to be more intentional about whom ACE Mentor serves and how, which has led to a partnership with the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA).

NOMA provides summer programming with Project Pipeline, a network of college student chapters and a fellowship program for prospective architects pursuing their licenses; the ACE Mentor partnership helps provide supplemental enrichment for year-round support and exposure and mentors for high school students of color. Given that many NOMA students are likely ACE alumni, this is a natural partnership opportunity.

The first step in this partnership was to include NOMA’s perspective on ACE Mentor’s strategic initiatives, which led to the appointment of Antoine Bryant, Associate AIA, APA, Detroit’s director of planning and development, and NOMA’s director of strategic partnerships, to the ACE National Board as director of strategic partnerships.

From Bryant’s perspective, no matter how strong programming may be, aspiring design professionals of color must be able to see people who look like them and who understand diverse cultural perspectives to envision a future in the field for themselves.

Bryant’s story of his own career evolution is a perfect example of this.

Growing up in the Brooklyn projects during the ’70s, he witnessed the changes that came with the ’80s that were terrible for his community. At 10 years old, he asked his father, “What can I do to change where we live and how it looks?”

Bryant’s father suggested he could be an architect and connected him with a Black architect he knew, Harry Simmons, who was known for designing and rehabilitating lower-and middle-income housing that addressed social needs in the inner city. Simmons promptly hosted 10-year-old Antoine in his office for a full Saturday to give him direct exposure to community-oriented design and the mentorship of someone who looked like him.

Bryant followed that experience by excelling at a great high school, which provided him with the opportunity to enroll in Cornell University’s architecture program. Bryant ultimately shifted to urban planning, and upon completion of his bachelor’s degree, he completed a master’s in architecture.

During the first few years of his professional career, Bryant worked at the community level to develop affordable housing in Oakland and Houston, which he calls a marriage of his planning and design background. Bryant went on to work for Moody Nolan, the largest African American-owned architecture firm for four years before receiving a call to work for the city of Detroit as its director of planning and development —where 70% of the population looks like him.

Bryant’s story not only emphasizes how career evolution can be advanced by the presence of mentors, but also how it can be energized by a desire to serve a community. He stands by the quote “find a way and make a way” to impact your community, and he is doing just that and more.

In a full circle, just as Bryant’s father connected him to a Black architect, he is seeking to build the same connections for young architects of color in partnership with ACE Mentor and NOMA, a union of two critically important missions.

Conclusion on Career Evolution

If there is one thing to take away from this article, it’s that ACE Mentor needs you to continue supporting the careers of the next generation of the AEC industry. Youths need committed mentors to guide them through a rapidly changing society, and their career evolution relies on the factors that influence them along the way. You can be a major influence on their success by partnering with ACE Mentor to host an extern or intern, provide a scholarship, be a mentor, or sit on an affiliate’s board. This article includes a few examples of the ACE Mentor impact, and there are thousands more to share. Hopefully, yours will be the one that we hear about next.

Darius Johnson

Johnson is the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic regional director for the ACE Mentor Program. He has served as executive director of Kent Attainable Housing, project manager at Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and affiliate director of ACE Baltimore/strategic outreach manager for the MD Center for Construction Education and Innovation.