Experiencing the Built Environment in High School: ACE Mentor Program

What happens when you allow high school students to step onto a construction site, meet the professionals building their community, and then challenge them to design a stadium of their own?

You get ACE.

The ACE Mentor Program of Southeast Michigan connects high school students with professionals in architecture, construction, engineering, and the skilled trades through hands-on projects, mentorship, and real-world experiences. ACE’s goal is simple: engage, excite, and enlighten participants.

This year, students had an incredible opportunity to learn alongside Detroit City Football Club as they explored the design and construction of a future soccer stadium and gathering place.

Students visited the DCFC construction site, where they got an up-close look at the people and processes that turn architectural plans into a real-world construction project. They attended a DCFC match, where they learned about the architecture and design of the team’s current stadium and experienced the space from the perspective of a fan. Along the way, their ACE mentors encouraged them to see the project through the eyes of architects, engineers, construction professionals, and members of the skilled trades.

Then it was their turn to design.

Working in teams with guidance from their ACE mentors, students developed their own stadium concepts. They considered everything from architectural design and engineering challenges to construction, site planning, sustainability, and the experience of the people who would use the space.

At the end of the program, teams presented their designs to a panel of industry professionals. These students weren’t simply learning about careers. They were experiencing them.

And that experience can be transformative.

Through ACE, students meet professionals who become mentors and role models. They discover career paths they may never have considered. They gain exposure to colleges and skilled trades, opportunities to earn college credit and scholarships, paid externships, and, for some students, their first meaningful connection to the professional world.

Program Director Susan Howey says that one of her favorite parts of ACE is watching students begin the program unsure of what they might want to do after high school, and finish with new confidence, new connections, and a much clearer sense of what might be possible. “We aren’t just introducing students to careers in the built environment,” she said. “We’re helping them see themselves in it.”

If you know a student, parent, grandparent, or teacher who would like to learn more about the ACE Mentor Program of Southeast Michigan, we invite you to discover ACE and see where it can take them. Registration for the 2027 program is now open!

10/02/2026