ACE Mentor Awards $20K Scholarship

ACE Mentor Program of and ACE National held a Zoom meeting to surprise Caleb Chinburg, an Oyster River High School student, with an Allen D. Berg CMiC Memorial scholarship worth $20,000 to be used over the course of his four years of post-secondary education and training in civil engineering. He has committed to the University of NH's CEPS for Civil Engineering and says he'll do the accelerated master’s program in structural engineering.

“Of all of the things that I have learned from the ACE Mentor Program, the most significant has been the importance of working together,” says Chinburg. “Nothing in the construction industry can be accomplished without relying on others, and I feel that throughout my time in the program and now through this scholarship, I have truly been welcomed into the ACE community. I look forward to paying this forward over the years to other students interested in the industry.”

CMiC, a long-time national ACE sponsor, and the family of the company’s late founder Allen Berg underwrite the scholarship program honoring Berg’s legacy of support for education, mentoring, career counseling in the design and construction industry.

ACE Mentor Program of NH piloted the program at Oyster River High in 2019 and is now including a second-year program at Oyster River that includes students from Winnacunnet High School in Hampton. A third program was launched in Manchester between Memorial High School and the Manchester School of Technology.

The ACE board and mentors are made up of a group of industry professionals who believe in mentoring students to help them understand what goes into a construction project and to inspire them to further pursue a career in one of the ACE related fields. At the end of each ACE NH program, there are typically student presentations held though this year they were canceled due to the pandemic.

The ACE Mentor board of NH is currently seeking sponsors, scholarships, and mentors in order to branch out and make additional school programs a reality around the State of NH. More information is at acementor.org or interested parties should reach out to NewHampshire@acementor.org.