March 25th, 2020
Another Successful Year for WRT's ACE Mentor Team

WRT volunteered once again as mentors for Philadelphia high school students, grades 9 through 12, as part of the ACE Mentor Program of Philadelphia, the local affiliate of the nation’s fastest-growing industry mentoring program. WRT has been involved with the ACE Mentor Program since 2012.

Through many sessions of presentations and hands-on workshops with WRT’s staff and team, the students learn about the architecture, construction, engineering industries, and how to apply creative problem-solving skills to their projects.

As part of this year’s program, WRT organized 17 students to compete in the Giant JENGA Tournament as well as the national Construction Industry Round Table (CIRT) National Design and Construction Competition.

img 20191030 172147676

The students came from three Philadelphia schools, Central High School, Science Leadership Academy, and String Theory Charter School. 

Giant Jenga Tournament
WRT sponsored two teams at the fourth annual Giant JENGA Tournament, with one of them placing 3rd out of 64 teams, the best performance by a team with student participants. WRT's group helped to raise $30,000 for ACE scholarships.

WRT’s team is featured in an 6abc news segment and the recap video prepared by ACE of Greater Philadelphia. Several staff also volunteered as referees of the tournament. 

team 01 tower 02
WRT ACE Mentor team celebrates JENGA success
The students came from three Philadelphia schools, Central High School, Science Leadership Academy, and String Theory Charter School

CIRT National Design and Construction Competition
As a culmination to the program, WRT worked with the students to prepare projects for the CIRT National Design and Construction Competition. This competition brings students and mentors from across the country to design solutions for one of three challenges: water resource management, a national pavilion, and a gastronomic center. WRT’s team decided to divide into two teams and focus on water resource management and gastronomic center challenges.

One of the teams was able to secure the 1st Runner’s Up position for the Water Resource Management and Preservation challenge. Both teams' submissions are here:

waterresourcemanagement philadelphia greaterphiladelphiateam10 web

Water Resource and Preservation Category
Water Works: Rowhome Revolution 

waterresourcemanagement philadelphia greaterphiladelphiateam10 web2
cirt team10 gastronomiccenter finalboards page 1

Gastronomic Center Category
Connect at the Cut

cirt team10 gastronomiccenter finalboards page 2
We are so proud of our students and mentors for their hard work and collaboration! A special shout out to Suvir Hira, Breanna Sheeler, and Brendan Conrey for their thoughtful and hard work as team leaders.