Ben Hallett and the Full Circle of Success for ACE Mentoring in Talbot County

There are a couple of ways that the ACE Mentor Program of Maryland’s Eastern Shore calculates the success and value of their work. It begins with how many students take part in the engineering mentoring program; the number of mentors that have volunteered; the annual projects they have worked on; and, hopefully, a fair amount of young people who have been inspired enough pursue careers in engineering.

Another measure of success can be the life experience of Ben Hallett.

The son of an engineer and a student at Saints Peter & Paul in high school, Ben signed up for the ACE program at his mother’s urging to test his interest in this specialized field. Predictably, Hallett was hooked from almost the very first day and used this growing passion to earn a degree in engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

In most cases, ACE would have been delighted to hear about this success story if it ended then but there was more to this journey. After college, Ben wanted to return to the Eastern Shore and though his former mentor’s help, was able to secure an internship position at Gipe Associates in Easton, and eventually led to a job offer to join that firm permanently. And now, after finding his sea legs in his new position, Ben has now signed up to be an ACE mentor himself.

This kind of “full circle” success story may be rare, but it does demonstrate the power that mentoring has, even in the complex field of engineering, in dramatically changing a young person’s future.

The Spy sat down with Ben last week to talk about ACE, his devotion to the organization, and the mentors that helped make his dream of becoming an engineer and able to return to his hometown to live, work, and raise a family on the Mid-Shore.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about the ACE Mentor Program of Maryland’s Eastern Shore please go here