Near the end of July, Sanaa, Zorion, Jeremiah and Devon, four of our students from our East Side Boys & Girls Club, had the opportunity to attend Tennis & Life Camp at Gustavus Adolphus University in St. Peter, MN! Our ACES students have been fortunate to be a part of this program the last few summers; they get to take part in sports-related learning, where the social-emotional teachings align with our own mission.

Our Site Coordinators are instrumental in ensuring our ACES programming runs smoothly and our youth are receiving intentional and relevant learning objectives. They’re the face of their site for administrators, students, and families, but they do so much more - they review daily lesson plans, provide observations and valuable feedback for our Academic Coaches, and coordinate and chaperon field trips. Their communication and implementation are instrumental in our success, so we wanted to feature them through periodic spotlight articles! First up: Site Coordinator Sara Schmidt!

Now that school is starting, we are excited to get back to our academic year programming and see our ACES Faces again! There will be many new faces this year as we welcome Harold Mezile North Community YMCA to our academic year site locations.

One of the great things about being an Academic Coach is that, although there is a lot of routine and ritual involved in classroom activity, no two days ever look the same. Some days are more focused on individual work and planning, some days are all about teamwork and experiments, and others are filled with creative thinking, large projects, or group games!

Alonzo, one of our ACES students from the East Side Boys & Girls Club, is just completing his first month of Never Too Late hockey camp! Minnesota Hockey partnered with the Minnesota Wild and the Minnesota Wild Foundation to develop Never Too Late, a low-cost Learn to Play Camp designed for youth aged 9-12 who have never played organized hockey.

It’s been an exciting summer for us as we added a new site to our summer programming! In addition to continuing our summer curriculum with Eastside Boys & Girls Club in Saint Paul and Jerry Gamble Boys & Girls Club in Minneapolis, we’ve expanded to add programming at Harold Mezile YMCA in Minneapolis! We’re committed to building on our previous success and growing our reach through the Twin cities Communities. This new partnership allows us to make a bigger impact in Minneapolis and Saint Paul by getting more students involved and engaged in math and social-emotional learning.

A couple weeks ago, Minnesota Bound, a local television series, and Rapala, a manufacturer of fishing gear, took two of our ACES students out on a fishing expedition. Jahari and Jaylen had never been fishing before, so they were ecstatic about the opportunity to go out in a fishing boat and hopefully get their first catch!

Our Academic Coaches are on the front line of so much that we do here at ACES: chaperoning field trips, building relationships with our youth, lesson planning, and making math and social-emotional connections while delivering our curriculum. Their hard work and dedication are instrumental in our success, so we want to ensure their commitment is recognized and shared through spotlights like these!

Athletes Committed to Educating Students (ACES), a local non-profit offering after-school learning programs, will host its 24th Annual All-Star Evening Thursday, May 9 at the Hyundai Club in US Bank Stadium with Minnesota Viking Chief Operating Officer Kevin Warren as the keynote speaker.