The whole-child approach of the Ace Academy program focuses not just on the academic and social-emotional aspects of youth development, but also stresses the importance of fitness and health by incorporating athletics and nutrition. Recent studies have shown that students involved in sports based youth development programs are more likely to stay in school, more likely to graduate, and more likely to attend college.

Each component of the Ace program is designed to provide students with the support, skills, and perspectives they need to successfully complete middle school and transition smoothly to a “right-fit” high school. The program not only helps improve student engagement, behavior, effort, and course performance – 95% of our Ace students graduate from high school.

Studies have pinpointed a series of indicators that can predict how likely a student is to drop out of high school: attendance, behavior and course performance – which are described as the “ABCs.” When a student struggles in just one of these areas as early as sixth grade, there is a 75% chance that he or she will not graduate high school.