There is a special kind of energy you get when high school students realize they’ve just nailed a major presentation. We saw this firsthand at this year’s ACE Mentor Program finals. Altieri’s Angelica Hermanto, PE, led the proceedings and, between nervous pacing before pitches and celebrations afterward, the room was nothing short of electrified.
Altieri has been involved in the ACE Mentor Program since 2023, supporting the organization’s mission by engaging high school students and encouraging them to pursue careers in architecture, engineering, and construction. Along with Angelica, Trevor Gasperetti, PE and I worked with a group of four students in the Bridgeport, CT school system throughout the school year. The group called themselves Diverse Designs.
The Ace Mentor Program Challenge and the Win
The prompt for this year’s finals was an official Request for Proposal (RFP) to design and build an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) for Bridgeport University. Students were tasked with creating a fictional firm, developing and presenting their design proposal, and managing project planning and communications throughout the process. The experience mirrored the real-world workflow of architecture, engineering, and construction professionals, requiring students to navigate the same challenges and responsibilities encountered in practice.
Diverse Designs took home the win!
A Look at the Future Workspace
So, what bizarre, brilliant, native skills do today’s students possess that will inevitably transform our future workspaces? What fascinated me was an exciting example of how this next generation approaches problem-solving. Diverse Design’s secret weapon caught us all off guard. I expected to see standard Autodesk-like products used for the systems demo. Instead, the students bypassed the traditional route and used ArchiCAD, which runs native on Apple. For their system demo, they used Roblox… yes, the video game platform.
And here’s the thing: it wasn’t a gimmick. It was remarkably effective for spatial communication and design modeling. The judging panel was visibly blown away; they even forgot to ask questions. The judging panel included Somaye Seddighi-Khavidak (Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Hartford), Gregg Dickinson (COO of the Bridgeport Wakeman Boys and Girls Club), Frank Croke (Senior Economic Development Associate for the City of Bridgeport), and Tyron Smith (Owner of Impact Construction) – not an easily influenced group. Watching a city designer and seasoned executives react with awe validated why we are involved with the ACE Mentor Program. Today’s students are enthusiastically (and perhaps unknowingly) pointing us toward new technology trends.
Mentorship as a Pipeline
Programs like ACE are a talent pipeline. Many of these students walk in with zero industry knowledge and most want to be architects. But in just a few weeks of working with Altieri engineers, many begin targeting engineering fields. We are poised to capture their interest early. Today’s mentees are tomorrow’s interns and future hires. In fact, Tyron Smith (one of our judges) is an ACE Mentor alum, and Anthony Salta from Turner Construction, a current ACE mentor, started out as an ACE student himself. We aren’t just building ADUs in these sessions; we are meeting and developing our future colleagues.
ACE Mentor Program reaches over 14,000 students reached annually, drawn from over 1,800 high schools nation-wide. Over 70% of enrolled students identify as people of color, and about 40% identify as young women. More than 5,000 industry professionals serve as volunteer mentors each year.
See the exciting activities and experiences that the ACE Mentor Program students participated in throughout the year here.
