On October 11th, Southern California DPR employees participated in the ACE Mentor Program's All Schools Day, a competition for all Los Angeles and Orange County schools that participate in ACE. DPR employees across the country volunteer their time for the program, which brings together architecture, engineering and construction professionals with high school students in a formal extracurricular enrichment program.

The DPR mentors, who work with Century High School students in Santa Ana, were Brennan Cooke, Brandon Fullam and Ocean Van. Ron Rendina also participated with the Pasadena team. Josh DeStefano and Alison Lind also mentor at Century High, but could not attend this event.

The challenge was to build a cantilevered platform from popsicle sticks, pasta and hot glue within a two-hour time frame. Mentors could help with design, but not build. Each school was judged on load the platform could carry, efficiency and overall performance.

L to R: Brandon Fullam, Ron Rendina, Brennan Cooke, and Ocean Van.