The ACME Network At a Glance - The ACME Network

Organization

The ACME Network is a non-profit social network whose award-winning animation mentoring platform prepares students for the creative economy, fostering creativity, leadership, innovation and 21st century skills. Founded in 1994, ACME has since helped over 55,000 students prepare for job-readiness in the creative industry via our programs with professional animators. ACME’s professional mentors come from Hollywood studios – such as DreamWorks, Disney, Sony Imageworks, and others. ACME serves students 13 years of age and above. Thousands of ACME students have gone on to industry careers.

The ACME Network is a nonprofit social network that prepares learners for the creative economy by advancing lifelong learning and career-readiness through professional and peer mentoring of student media projects.

The ACME online platform offers instructional videos, videoconference master classes, curricular content and professional development for participating teachers and students, set against industry standards.
ACME Animation (www.acmeanimation.org), is a mentoring and curriculum service focusing on animation and illustration for Arts, Digital Media, Humanities and Technology classes to foster creative, leadership, innovation and 21^st century skills.

Students must learn to communicate, support their peers, and accept constructive criticism. PAY IT FORWARD mentoring encourages them to participate through uploading work and offering comments – this qualifies them to participate in 1-on-1 mentoring sessions with professionals over ACME On-Air video conferences.

Currently serving: over 9,000 students (55,000 since 2004) and 80 teachers in 67 schools in eight states (95% in California, also represented in Alabama, New Mexico, New York, Michigan, Texas, Utah, Wyoming). ACME utilizes a pool of about 150 professional mentors (representing 50 Hollywood companies). ACME has delivered 244 live On-Air telecasts (video conference webinars) in the last two years.
65% of ACME’s students come from underserved communities (low income)

55,000 students served since 2004 - 99% of ACME students graduate high school (w. 92% of those planning to go on to college) – 1000 ACME Animation students are now working in creative companies (Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, Blizzard)

Won the 2012 United States Distance Learning Association 21st Century Award for Best Practices in Distance Learning
Won the 2012 Vial Award for Outstanding Performance by an Organization and Individual (Executive Director: Deborah Brooks)
Won the 2012 Vial Award for Outstanding Performance by an Organization and Individual (Executive Director: Deborah Brooks)
Cited as model program in 2008 Career Technical Education (CA Governor’s report), and 2008 WestEd Report on Work-based Learning in California: Opportunities & Models for Expansion

ACME V3 Online Platform: a participatory (social network style) online community where students post projects (art, animation, digital media, graphics, games) for review, critique and feedback by peers, teachers and professional mentors, mastering the language and practice of collaboration, communication, revision and presentation.
ACME On-Air: multipoint h.232 videoconferencing, using dedicated hardware (usually Polycom/Tandberg) over California’s “CENIC” and/or “K20″ broadband networks. Plans to migrate all videoconferencing to IP video over the Web using 3rd party solutions (e.g. Adobe Connect).