Our vision is to combat political polarization by creating a more objective, informed, democratically-engaged generation.
We value the curiosity, openness, and enthusiasm of those who want to make democratic engagement and political participation a part of their busy lives, as well as those who have a desire to better understand complex, polarizing, political issues.
Our mission is to build a trusted, national, nonprofit think tank driven by the next generation of policy researchers.
ACE’s Roots
ACE’s founder, Siena Frost, studied Middle Eastern and Islamic studies with a focus on immigration policy. After graduating from Colgate University, she worked as a refugee resettlement coordinator and Arabic translator in Bulgaria. While there, she witnessed the gap between real world immigration struggles and a U.S. debate caricatured by sound bytes, partisan bickering, and misinformation. In response, she wrote several nonpartisan, introductory briefs on immigration policy to make the complicated topic accessible to young voters. Her research gained traction, and Siena moved back to the United States to pitch her idea for a trusted, national, nonpartisan think tank. The concept received funding, and Siena began building a team of young, entrepreneurial policy researchers in Boston.
Student Fellows Program
The next step was to create a formal Student Fellows program, research standards and publishing platform powered by the next generation of policy researchers. Students Fellows hone their policy research and analysis skills, learn how to look at all sides of an issue, and communicate to an audience with a diversity of political ideologies in a nonpartisan way. ACE opened applications for the first class of Student Fellows in December of 2020 and was overwhelmed by the outpouring of interest from all over the country. An exceptional group of graduate students with expertise in their research areas joined the organization to manage teams of Student Fellows. This expanded ACE’s focus on immigration to nine new research areas, from foreign policy to environmental policy and criminal justice. We now work with more than 150 students from 84 universities in 32 states.
New Ways to Engage
ACE continues to find new ways to inform young voters on policy issues. The Political Priorities Worksheet helps users identify their core political issues, and narrow their focus to actionable policies. The Dark Money exercise demonstrates how campaign finance regulations function on a local level by creating a voter’s-eye view of an election campaign inundated with possibly deceptive political advertising. Most recently, our new Video Editing and Graphic Design teams are creating video briefs and infographics to convey policy information even more efficiently, and draw young voters in through the visual medium.
Looking Forward
In the next five years, ACE plans to expand beyond policy briefs to develop innovative solutions to potentially divisive policy issues. We aim to be recognized as a trusted, nonpartisan think tank that helps young voters across the nation engage with and develop political policy.
