ACE sees increased participation
Swell in numbers driven by freshmen
Freshman Amanuel Shetaye works with mentor Dan Klobucar during the ACE meeting Dec. 19. According to Klobucar, ACE recently has experienced growth in number of participants.
December 27, 2019
While reflecting on his high school years, Architecture Construction Engineering mentor Dan Klobucar said the program was not available for him as a teen.
“It’s a pretty good opportunity to take advantage of and I’m glad to be able to help these students get an idea of what architecture, construction or engineering is all about,” Klobucar said. “If it’s something they are interested in, this is a way to get an idea so that when they go off to college, they’re not just lost.”
The first week there were like five or six kids and then a couple kids dropped out and we were down to three for a couple weeks, but then we got a nice large class of freshmen that joined up. — Dan Klobucar
Freshman Ryan Dusaire said there has been an influx of freshmen joining the program, many drawn in by their friends.
“There’s been a lot of people joining and we’ve done lots of work in the past weeks,” Dusaire said. “There’s a lot of new freshmen joining — a lot of my friends are joining.”
According to Klobucar, contacting teachers has helped the club — also known as ACE — in connecting with more students and increasing numbers.
“The first week there were like five or six kids and then a couple kids dropped out and we were down to three for a couple weeks, but then we got a nice large class of freshmen that joined up,” Klobucar said. “Now we are pushing into a student class size of 11 or 12.”
Freshman Winnie Fritz-Durocher, who joined ACE about a month ago, said she first learned about the club from her science teacher.
“I heard about (ACE) in my science class, my teacher was talking about it and it sounded interesting,” Fritz-Durocher said. “We’re basically just working on building a plan for a building and working out all the details and making one plan as a group.”
Dusaire said those considering joining ACE should come and try it out. The club hosts meetings each Thursday in the C2 hallway.
“Some of my friends told me about it, so then I went with them and joined,” Dusaire said. “(Students) should come and try it out. It’s OK if they don’t like it, they should still come and try.”
According to Fritz-Durocher, she enjoys ACE due to the emphasis it places on creativity and critical thinking, and recommends others join the club as well.
“I just thought that (ACE) was really interesting. I’m interested in architecture and we’ve been working on a design for a building and I’ve just had a lot of fun doing that,” Fritz-Durocher said. “I like the imaginative and creative elements of (ACE) and coming up with creative ways to make a building and design it.”
