Upcoming Info Session: Early Childhood Education, December 15th, 6pm-7pm

Interested in beginning or advancing your career in Early Childhood Education?

Come learn more about the MV Community College Consortium’s NEW island-based program that will provide you with:

  • 3 college credits in Child Growth and Development (January 23-May 16, 2023)
  • CPR/First Aid Certification
  • Center-Based Teacher and Family Child Care Provider licensure support
  • Scholarships
  • Professional Development
  • Academic Support in a Cohort Model
Information Session
Thursday, December 15, 6-7PM
MV Community Services – Early Education and Care Center
111 Edgartown-VH Road
Click HERE to register for this event!
Email Kate Lefer for more information: kate@mvcet.org

Bristol Community College courses come to Martha’s Vineyard

Get started at Bristol Community College with classes designed specifically for Vineyard residents. Enrolling now for Fall 2022 in collaboration with Martha’s Vineyard Center for Education and Training (formerly ACE MV).

Start your associate degree or certificate by taking courses at Bristol Community College. Courses include English, marine biology, and the College Success Seminar, which helps new students successfully transition to college. Wind certificate courses fluid systems and offshore safety will also be running this fall.

1.    Bring your questions
2.    Complete your enrollment
3.    Get help with FAFSA
4.    See you there!

RSVP for the event here

Save time by completing your college application before attending the workshop.
It’s free! 
BristolCC.edu/apply

For more information visit BristolCC.edu/BristolMV or email info@acemv.org

2022-06-17T19:42:57-04:00June 17th, 2022|Blog, Classes & Programs, Events, News, YACCMV|

ACE MV’s White Paper on Island Youth

Next Steps for Martha’s Vineyard: Recommendations to Expand Opportunities for Youth and Young Adults

ACE MV is pleased to provide you with the Final Report “Next Steps for Martha’s Vineyard: Recommendations to Expand Opportunities for Youth and Young Adults. This research report stems from our UMass Chan School of Medicine Rural Scholars project, sponsored by the Dukes County Health Council. Our focus was to identify service gaps, barriers, and needs of the Vineyard’s disconnected youth and young adult population, and we worked with dozens of community stakeholders to develop these comprehensive and formal recommendations.

We hope these recommendations will be embraced by you, your organization, and our community partners as we all strive to improve the lives of our Island’s youth. Please share this with your team and refer to it when making decisions about planning, equity, inclusivity, education, economics, housing, workforce, and community health. Your feedback is welcome.

Click here to view and download.

2022-02-16T17:43:59-05:00February 16th, 2022|Blog, Career Connections, News, Top News|

How Employers and Educators Can Help Teens Avoid Career Dead-Ends This Fall

by Nancy Hoffman, ACE MV Board Chair and Senior Advisor at JFF

“This summer should be a learning moment enriched with work experiences that serve as living career exploration laboratories.”

Today’s job market may have teens seeing nothing but dollar signs, but it presents families, educators, employers, and even policymakers with an opportunity to help young people understand the economy and think critically about their long-term employment and training options. Read more at JFF.org

2022-08-05T19:16:23-04:00July 16th, 2021|Blog|

A letter from Executive Director Holly Bellebuono

Dear friends,

You may remember the ACE MV office used to be in a little house on Greenwood Avenue in Vineyard Haven. Then, last spring, we moved into an office within the high school. At the moment—as our social and economic realities change daily—our staff and board are working remotely, but Vineyard adult education is still going strong.

We’re all aware that elementary and secondary schools have closed; adult learning has changed, as well. Professionals in business, health care, language, trades, and technology are shifting their learning environments to accommodate quarantine. ACE MV, as the Island’s cornerstone of adult learning, is at the center.

ACE MV’s line-up of spring classes was impressive: partnering with colleges, universities, state government departments, and local boards of health, we had scheduled courses and programs that lead to certificates, licenses, PDPs, CEUs, and toward a Master’s Degree in Education. Though recent events have changed this plan, leading to some cancellations and postponements, we are diving into a new way to deliver learning: online.

You’re likely aware that ACE MV has prided itself in hiring Vineyard instructors to teach Vineyard residents in-person; we are now adjusting our methods to support a variety of learning options. Our thanks go out to our wonderful and flexible instructors who have enthusiastically jumped on-board with the idea of teaching “virtually.” Many of our teachers have never led an online class, and we’re all discovering this comes with significant challenges. But our staff has researched and vetted online options and our teachers have happily taken up the call: we are now hosting a number of our classes online, such as “Diversity in the Classroom,” taught by Marge Harris, Ph.D., of Southern New Hampshire University’s School of Education, through a partnership between ACE and Fitchburg State University, and “Success with Business Communication” with Professor Aline Wolff, Ph.D. of New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Our Offshore Wind Technician Certificate students are continuing the Electrical Machinery class with Bristol Community College Adjunct Faculty member Dana Munn, as well as completing College Algebra, the first 2 classes in the 2-year part-time certificate. Other classes in the coming months include Docent Training with Elaine Weintraub, Scientific Diving with Giorgio Caramanna, and ServSafe with Alice Robinson. We are also prioritizing the badly-needed HiSET/GED class, taught by Erin Simmons and Robert Ribiero, and the new Adult Basic Ed program, taught by Matthew Burke, which we created in partnership with MV Hospital and Dukes County Homeless Prevention, with funding from Permanent Endowment of MV.

In addition to ACE MV’s dedication to workforce development education, we also value learning for learning’s sake. Depending on the extent of the health situation, ACE MV plans to offer something new this summer: a great variety of enrichment courses. Our popular cooking, photography, and writing classes will return because learning is about keeping our minds nimble and our hands active. Our summer classes will expand awareness, bring joy, and stimulate creativity; we will keep you posted when classes are scheduled.

Additionally, though schools are closed, ACE MV staff have been working closely with MV Regional High School to develop learning opportunities for our teens and young adults. Through our Career Pathways Initiative, funded in part by The Couch Family Foundation, we have been compiling data about regional educational opportunities for trades especially for young people leaving high school for whom a 2-year or 4-year college is not a plan. Working with the high school’s Career and Technical Education department, we are compiling a physical resource that will provide students with a wealth of information about educational opportunities, certificates and licenses required for certain professions, and local job and career opportunities here on the Island. If you are an Island employer, please contact us to learn how you can be involved.

We offer many more classes than can be listed here; please visit our course catalog for your own learning opportunities. ACE MV staff have curated a helpful resource of free online classes, TED talks, and other options for you to enjoy. (https://www.acemv.org/community-resources-free-e-learning-wellness-hub/) Check our website in another week to register for online classes that can lead to certificates of completion and skill-building.

Finally, we are delighted to announce two new members to our Board of Directors: Aletheia Donahue, M.D., M.P.H., specializing in Internal Medicine at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, and Heidi Feldman, co-owner of Down Island Farm, LLC and MV Sea Salt. Our board’s outreach into the community reflects ACE MV’s commitment to educating all Islanders and making Martha’s Vineyard an economically viable and culturally rich place to live and work.

We look forward to teaching and learning with you,

Holly Bellebuono
Executive Director ACE MV
March 31, 2020

2021-08-19T13:51:51-04:00March 31st, 2020|Blog|