ACE Mentoring builds future careers

In terms of career-based opportunities, Marshall offers a bevy of organizations, clubs and support groups. There is DECA for marketing, Future Business Leaders of America for business and Skills USA for general workplace and leadership development.
ACE Mentoring, another career-centric club, gives Statesmen a more specific opportunity: the chance to envision and design a year-long project in the fields of architecture, construction or engineering  all while exploring careers in these fields.
According to club sponsor Michael Martin, ACE Mentoring “is a national program to inspire students to participate in careers that are related to architecture, construction management and/or engineering.”
Bringing in local professionals to act as advisors, the club works together throughout the school year in order to finalize a culminating project to be presented to the ACE Mentoring Board of Directors. This year, the organization is designing a “rail link between the terminal of Dulles Airport and the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum,” Martin said.
Junior Samir Abdallah called this year’s project “a bit more on the technical side” than past projects, which have included redesigning the cafeteria and constructing a model of a geodesic underwater scientific community.
With this year’s project, Abdallah said the club “wanted to actually enhance the experience” of the museum.
ACE Mentoring students often continue onto careers or education in the fields they study while in the program, Martin said.
“We do have students who have left Marshall High School with an expectation that they will go onto an engineering school or an architecture school,” he added.
Martin said some Marshall students have been the recipients of ACE Mentoring scholarships.
“Last year, we had a student who won a $5,000 annual scholarship,” he said. Martin also cited two candidates who are eligible this year for a national scholarship.
“[The scholarships] are very meaningful,” Martin said.
Overall, according to Martin, “ACE is really about exploring a possible career alternative.”