CAM Releases the Building Michigan Podcast, Episode 10

Bloomfield Hills, MI (September 19th) – The tenth episode of the Construction Association of Michigan's podcast welcomes Vince DeLeonardis, CEO of AUCH Construction, and Jeff Chandler, President of VTC Insurance Group. Hosted by Kevin Koehler, the President of CAM, this episode dives into the ACE Mentor Program and the many ways in which it is building Michigan's future construction workforce. DeLeonardis is a past chair and current nominating committee member for the ACE Mentor Program in Southeast Michigan. Chandler is the current chair of the ACE Mentor committee.

Founded in 1994, the Ace Mentor Program of America is a free, award-winning after-school program designed to attract high school students to careers in architecture, construction, and the engineering industry. According to DeLeonardis, "The program itself is set up to take a high school student through a construction project, soup to nuts, from its inception through its planning, the design and construction, and all the various aspects that take place through it."

Tim Andrews, CAM Podcast Producer, remarked, "Having read about the ACE Mentor Program myself, something that stood out to me was that there's about 4,000 industry professionals who actually volunteer as mentors annually. To me, this seems unique and I think it says there's a lot of passion involved with this program and how it functions fundamentally."

Jeff Chandler agreed, stating, "I think there is passion. These mentors work tirelessly. And it's so rewarding for them on the back half of this to see the connections they develop with kids afterward, and whether they're hiring that kid in three or three or four or five years, or whether that kid just uses them as a reference or a sounding board, there is a tremendous emotional payoff for that."

Registration is now open for the southeastern Michigan 2023 Ace Mentor Program. Click here for enrollment instructions. For more information about the ACE Mentor Program, visit https://www.acementor.org/. 

Podcast Information

Listen to this hot topic conversation and all of CAM’s “Building Michigan” podcast episodes at buildwithcam.com/podcast or on your favorite podcast platform.

Contact cam@buildwithcam.com for podcast sponsorship opportunities or with suggestions for future podcast topics. Each episode of the “Building Michigan” podcast, produced for Michigan’s construction industry by the Construction Association of Michigan, and sponsored by Priority Health, features current news and information regarding the latest construction techniques, methods and equipment, as well as economic updates and interviews with key people in Michigan's commercial construction industry.