ACE Mentor Program Comes Full Circle with Year-End Celebration
Since its founding by Charles H. Thornton ’61, the ACE Mentor Program has helped hundreds of high school students learn about STEM fields.
In 1995, Charles H. Thornton '61 launched the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York to support students who intend to pursue careers in architecture, construction and engineering. Since its inception, the program has awarded more than $2 million in scholarships to nearly 1,000 program graduates.
More than 20 years later, the ACE program has expanded nationally to include chapters in Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Chicago and Dallas, to name a few. In May, ACE held its annual year-end event on campus at Manhattan College's Smith Auditorium for the first time.
The event brought together high school students and professional engineering mentors in a group of presentations on architecture, construction management and engineering. The mentors delivered helpful feedback to the students on their projects, with insightful tidbits for them to carry on with them throughout their academic careers.
"These students are a very special group," said Tim Ward, Ph.D., P.E., dean of the School of Engineering. "They represented themselves very well and represented a great tribute to Charlie Thornton."
At the end of the evening, Miah Cohall '20 (pictured, above) was one of a handful of students to receive scholarship assistance from the ACE Mentor Program. Cohall received the Dr. Charles Thornton-ACE Mentor Program Scholarship, which is given to one incoming freshman each year. Cohall, a senior at Walter Panas High School in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., participated in the College's Summer Engineering Awareness Program during her high school career and will enroll in the School of Engineering this fall.