Junior Madison Vignes stood at the University of Minnesota with her fellow teammates as they presented what they worked on for the past semester.

Five students in the architecture, construction and engineering (ACE) mentorship program attended a competition Mar. 10 where they won fourth place and gained valuable experience, according to Vignes.

Vignes said she has been a participant in the program since it started earlier in the school year. She said both the competition and the program overall helped her work on important skills.

“We presented in front of over 100 people so I think that helped my presenting skills,” Vignes said. “It also helped me learn to work with a team and how we each have to cover different aspects and how we culminated to create a beautiful product.”

Sam Register, a mentor for the Park team, said she was proud of the effort the team had put into their project.

“Park students did an absolutely fantastic job presenting a project they put many dedicated hours into completing,” Register said. “Students greatly improved their professional presentation skills, and demonstrated a new knowledge of construction, engineering and architecture.”

According to Register, the team worked for about a semester leading up to this competition. The goal of this project was to design, engineer and plan construction for a new clinic, ultimately leading up to this competition.

Each school made a poster board to show all the phases they completed to develop a final clinic design. They also made a presentation detailing their construction goals, steps, building process and final product, which they had 15 minutes to present to a panel of three judges, according to Register.

Register said she felt this program and presentation benefitted the students who were able to participate.

“The students now have a better understanding of what it would mean to pursue a career in architecture, engineering or construction,” Register said. “They now have relationships with community members in all different fields and can use those connections to have mentors and job opportunities in the future.”

Vignes said she agreed the participants benefitted from their work and became more interested in architecture, engineering and construction jobs.

“I feel like everybody became more interested in (ACE related careers) because we learned how to use the that they would use and the about the process that they go through,” Vignes said.

Vignes was able to attend the competition with fellow juniors Kim Tran, Mikey Segal, Justin Less and Henry Feldman.

Hopkins, Humbolt, Irondale, Shakopee and Washburn also competed at the University of Minnesota, where the contest was held.