ACE Educates

Work With ACE To Design Educational Programs That Fit Your School or organization’s needs

Arcturus Community Endeavors works with schools, colleges, and organizations to build internships and educational programs for students. ACE’s mission is to develop community leaders and community-focused professionals who have the skills to make a positive change in the world. We will work with your organizations to shape programs around your timelines and goals. However, ACE does have basic guidelines outlined below that make ACE educational programs unique. Contact our Programs Director, Shiren Chan, at schan@arcturuscommunity.org for more information about our curriculums and expectations or with any additional questions you may have.

Our Programs

Our youth programs blend classroom theory with real practice in real time, following the growth cycle of young people ages 16-24, to introduce them to the possibilities in adulthood and setting them up for the next part of their journey. We develop our programs to follow their growth: awareness, build, launch.

  • AWARENESS - Youth ages 16-19 from NYC jump start their awareness of their future possibilities through a hands-on internship program that develops their career readiness skills, develops their work experience and exposes them to different career pathways. Youth work after school and on weekends learning about entrepreneurship and small business needs while honing their talents to outreach and serve small business owners.

    What Does the Internship Offer?

    ·         College Readiness

    ·         Work Readiness

    ·         Mentorship + Networking

    ·         Career Exploration Workshops

    ·        Field Trips for College Exploration

    Email schan@arcturuscommunity.org for registration and more information

  • BUILD-Young people ages 16-24 explore entrepreneurship and career pathways through an intensive 6 week internship blended career development experience to learn about small business needs post pandemic, provide technical assistance and increase small businesses’ access to free resources. Youth engage in specialized service learning projects that expose them to a college level coursework and they rise to the occasion demonstrating college level talent to meet small business needs in finances, marketing and legal support.What Does the Internship Offer?

    ·         College Readiness

    ·         Work Readiness

    ·         Mentorship + Networking

    ·         Career Exploration Intensive Workshops

    ·        Field Trips for College Exploration

    ·         College Admission Intensive Coaching

    ·         Job Placement

    ·         Youth Advisory Board Invitation

    ·         Internship/Fellowships

    ·         ACE Alumni Network

    Email schan@arcturuscommunity.org for registration and more information

  • Young people ages 19-24 will focus on supporting the non-profits mission, including the development of ACE's youth programs. Interns will have access to learn about ACE from the bottom to the top; how to run a non-profit and engage in high level development of programs, funding, partnerships and learning about small business needs. Interns will have an opportunity to develop pilot projects that focus on their major or interest, guided by an ACE mentor.

    What Does the Internship Offer?

    ·         Employment Opportunities

    ·         Mentorship + Networking

    ·         Life Skills Intensives

    ·         Job Placement Support

    ·         Internship/Fellowships

    ·         ACE Alumni Network

    Email schan@arcturuscommunity.org for registration and more information.

Our Vision

We see our youth breaking the glass ceiling and accessing high quality jobs, owning businesses, increasing diversity in the workforce and increasing generational wealth for their families and in their communities.

Exposure Creates Expansion


Principles

  1. Fair Compensation. Our organization is currently volunteer-run. However, we strongly feel interns should be compensated for their work. If students wish to volunteer, our organization offers plenty of volunteer opportunities. ACE works with organizations to compensate young adult (16-25) interns through stipends or academic credit. Programs for younger students are completely education-focused, but we still feel it is important younger students get some sort of credit for any work they do for our organization, whether through volunteer hours, a stipend, or some sort of academic credit. 

  2. Why Before How. In order to succeed in our programs, students must be invested. This means students must understand WHY our programs are beneficial to them and their communities and why we teach every skill we do. Understanding WHY small businesses are important must come before understanding how to help them. Understanding why different skills are important comes before learning how to complete them. 

  3. Long-Term Impact. We want to create community leaders. All of our programs are focused on giving students new skills, new experiences, and new information in order to make them more capable of creating change and succeeding in their educational and life goals. Therefore, we also help students update their resumes and give them a network they can continually fall back on as they pursue new goals. 

Practices

  1. Mentorship. All students are matched with a mentor in our organization based on interests. They will work closely with this mentor on projects to benefit small businesses in underserved communities. 

  2. Community Outreach. Arcturus Community Endeavors is an outreach organization and the first module students go through after their introduction to the program focuses on outreach. Outreach teaches confidence and speaking skills, it also requires empathy and teaches students about the issues facing their community. 

  3. Projects. Our educational programs complete with a project in order to help students gain mastery of a skill, make a tangible impact, and have evidence of their work to show future schools and employers.

Goals

In our programs, students learn:

  • New hard skills in their area of interest. By the end of the semester, all interns should also see measurable improvement in their area of interest, whether in marketing, computer science, writing, or economics. They will have marketable skills and a project to demonstrate mastery.

  • To speak and write persuasively. We feel persuasive communication is a fundamental 21st-century skill and builds students’ confidence to go into any field they want to. Confident communication opens doors in a way that no other skill set does. All students who complete our programs receive plenty of support and practice reading and writing persuasively while working on outreach and research projects.

  • About issues impacting their communities. Our goal is to create leaders who can solve real - world issues, this requires a base knowledge of real - world issues. Our programs usually include base education about the issues most impacting the small businesses we serve: rising rents, literacy, and economic equality. Programs also cover an issue particular to businesses in the community students are from; for example programs in Bushwick usually cover immigration, programs in the Bronx may cover sanitation or food deserts. 

    After completing our programs, students can:

  • Learn anything. Research is another fundamental skill for the 21st century that we drill students on. We teach students to as the right questions, test their assumptions, check their sources, and apply critical thinking skills to information gathering so they can learn anything. Research is the first step to solving any issue.

  • Apply their skills ethically. 

  • Organize their community to address an issue.

After completing our programs, students have:

  • Confidence. 

  • An experience to put on a resume AND A RESUME. 

  • A network of connections.