Alberto, a highly focused second grader, tells us that someday he wants to be a “fireman because they rescue people, or maybe a policeman who catches bad guys… and,” as he changes gears with a grin, “I have a pet scorpion.”

His ACE teacher describes him as, “Amazing; very smart and always prepared. He’s up at 4 a.m. to arrive ready for school.” For Alberto, “the best thing about school is the learning, and my favorite class is science because we learn about nature [which may explain the scorpion] and I also want to be a geologist ‘cause I like cool rocks.”

Alberto speaks nearly flawless English and Spanish (required in his bilingual school) and sports a better-than-second-grade command of Mestizo, a centuries-old blend of Portuguese and French, which he learned on his own.

Yet the deeper reality behind these eyes is that Alberto has lived most of his seven years in local shelters with his single mom – a stark contrast to the stable and secure world found within the doors of his ACE private school.

Jody.

We’d like to introduce Jody, a seven year old second grader in an ACE private school.

Like so many girls her age, Jody loves horses and wants to own one some day. In the meantime, she really likes that her “teacher makes science fun and is so kind and nice.” In fact, “nice” is also how Jody describes all the other kids in her school - even the boys.

Because her teacher is allowed to keep the classroom under control, students are consistently free to enjoy learning – and each other. That’s a private school attribute that has expanded the ACE waiting list to more than four times the number of scholarships we can award in a typical semester.

Kids are quick to pick up on these intangibles too. Jody knows that her parents chose her ACE partner school “because of its values.” For ACE, the value lies in providing a quality education to great kids like Jody.