ACES—Achievement Through
Community Service, Education,
and Skill Building
Please Touch Museum

ACES students Luis Santiago, Saybah Biawogei, and David Castillo work with their mentor, Jamilah Thompkins, to re-create a human rights painting.

Photo: Jennifer Arnold

ACES—Achievement Through Community Service, Education, and Skill Building is Please Touch Museum's work-based learning, enrichment, and mentoring program for teens from four of Philadelphia's public high schools. Each year, 25 young participants spend one day per week at Please Touch; they also devote many after-school and weekend hours to working in the Museum.

ACES places a strong emphasis on group projects. As students take on various roles—researcher, designer, implementer, and evaluator—they come to understand the value of teamwork and the individual's role in the group process. After a trip to historic landmarks in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; and Washington, DC, for instance, ACES' students drew on their experiences to prepare a reading, "Welcome to America," which they presented to a group of newly naturalized Americans. To follow up at the Museum, each teenager researched the home country of a newly naturalized citizen and then participated in an ACES group project—a multicultural display that presented history, culture, and geography to Please Touch's young visitors.

ACES' students are paid for their work. To ensure that they receive school credit, all projects, activities, and job placements are developed using school district standards. As a well-rounded program, designed to meet students' multifaceted needs, ACES also provides counseling services, academic tutoring, and college and career guidance. In addition, an adult advocate helps students resolve school-related issues.

From week to week, students also explore careers that are new to many of them-for example, careers in marketing, event planning, and exhibition design. Volunteers from the Museum's staff mentor the students, guiding them through professional projects. During the past year, these included creating toy package designs, writing and performing in Museum theater productions, and planning and executing exhibitions.

In 2002, Please Touch Museum's community programs, including ACES, won the National Award for Museum Services from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. ACES' outstanding features are, indeed, worthy of recognition. Its holistic educational focus exposes young people to a wide range of learning opportunities in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The long-term nature—students are in the program for three years—encourages students to develop strong relationships with Museum staff. And its Museum–wide focus provides students with opportunities for learning and working throughout the Museum.

During their time in the program, students develop problemsolving skills and learn to be tenacious in overcoming obstacles. A program of high expectations and unique resources, ACES helps teens set clear goals for the future and prepares them to become independent, confident adults.