INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - October 4, 2006 - The ACE Mentor Program of Indiana began its inaugural year with a rousing success. At a Scholarship Dinner held in May of this year, nineteen students representing Northwest High School and George Washington Community School made presentations to over 160 professionals from the design and construction community. The evening concluded with the award of $20,000 in scholarships to students who plan to enter industry related fields of study.

Adopting two schools, mentoring nineteen students and raising twenty thousand dollars is not bad for their inaugural year. However, ACE organizers knew this was just the tip of the iceberg. For the second year of the program ACE adopted a third school, Arsenal Technical. With the popularity of the program at Northwest and Washington, and the addition of Tech, the program has already drawn the interest of more than 50 students. The original impetus for the program was to help fill a need for skilled workers, as the U.S. Department of Labor estimates the construction industry will have two million job vacancies in the next four years. But the popularity of the program has grown among firms interested in providing mentors, not to fill this shortage, but because their colleagues expressed to them the pure satisfaction in teaching their skills to students that may never be exposed to such careers and opportunities.

For information on how you can become involved in the program, please contact Tiffiny Summers at 317.573.2828.