BLAINE, Minn. – (March, 17, 2016) – Many talk about it, but few do anything about it. Closing the achievement gap is high on the priority list for many Minnesota lawmakers and educators. Athletes Dedicated to Educating Students (ACES) is a program that is using sports to engage students who then also receive tutoring and mentoring. “I get to do a lot of homework in there so then my grades tend to go up a little bit,” said ACES student Kiera Morris. Besides getting help from tutors ACES has also helped Morris develop meaningful relationships. “My friend John and I, we are in the same grade but we don’t have any classes together, so we became better friends because of ACES and their is a lot op people from other grades. A few eighth graders, sixth graders, and fifth graders that we hang out in the morning and it’s really nice to be able to have an age range of friends,” said Morris. Morris is much more into sports that she used to be and now recognizes athletes when she sees them on TV. ACES has given her the opportunity to interact with several local professional athletes and even challenge one of them to a race. “We got to go to Winter Park and we were doing different things across the field like sprints, jogging, stuff like that. When we were doing sprints I said I could go faster than him (Stefon Diggs) and when we were about to start he put his arm in front of me and had me stop so I couldn’t like really go forward but I was close to winning so it was still fun,” said Morris. While Morris says that she loves the Vikings she has fallen in love with a different sport, volleyball. Sports have become Morris’s outlet. “Sometimes it gets anger out like you want to spike and serve. It helps me get serves over if I’m mad at someone I can get it over,” said Morris. Morris has many dreams beyond sports. “I want to be a singer or actress or doctor,” said Morris. She lights up when talking about her favorite artists Ariana Grande and R5. ACES has given Kiera confidence and space to just be a kid. “I feel like you get to know more about people, you get to do more athletics, you get to be yourself, and you won’t be judged and that’s nice,” said Morris. ACES is one of hundreds of youth intervention programs in Minnesota and it serves more than 600 each year.
