My name is Raul Estrada; I'm a senior at Northwood High School. I want to share with you, my experience with ACES. The first time I met Mr.Pabian he woke me from the false reality I was living in. His recruitment presentation made me think about my future and how I want to live. At the time I didn't really care much about school, had low grades, and even failed a class or two. Getting accepted into the program was really a turning point for me. I fixed my grades and brought up my cumulative GPA by a lot. Mr. Pabian has been a huge help. He has always been there for me when I need him. He helped me and guided me through finding what I want in my future, what I want to major in, looking at schools, and really looking into all my options for achieving my goals. I am the first in my family to got to college. My parents want to help me, but they simply don't know how to, so ACES and Mr.Pabian have been a huge help. I'm starting a class at MC at the end of January. My plan is to go to MC for two years then transfer to Towson University, and major in Business Administration. If it wasn't for ACES I don't know if I would be going to college. Big thanks to the ACES program and Mr.Pabian.