At first glance, St. Lawrence University can come off as a little rough around the edges. Situated in the heart of Canton, NY the school appears fairly remote to most students coming from bustling city centers and lively routines. In order to remedy this, students tend to bring entertainment to the campus through their own creative means. The Association for Campus Entertainment, or A.C.E, is one such organization of students that supplies entertainment for campus. A.C.E. is comprised of students who are passionate about providing enjoyable, out of the ordinary events for the rest of the student body. It is made up of both chairs and their committees, who plan all sorts of events from concerts to movies and even hot air balloon rides.

In the past few years, A.C.E. has really seemed to step up their game. As the organization responsible most notably for fallfest and springfest, the members of A.C.E. have worked incredibly hard to lure popular bands into coming to the remote area of Canton, N.Y. Not surprisingly, the passionate members of A.C.E have been able to gather some pretty impressive names to add to their collection of artists over the past few years, including: Sammy Adams, Mat Kearney, Chainsmokers, GROUPLOVE, and most recently Misterwives and Atlas Genius. This wide array of names and music genres has been made possible through the hard work and dedication of A.C.E. members. Both Chris Rich ’18 and Kate Brooker ’17, who are current members, concur that the reason A.C.E. is becoming such a coherent group is largely due to the student body that constitutes the organization. According to Brooker, a majority of the current members joined the group during their first year at St. Lawrence and have been working together since then, making them not only co-members of the same group but also friends. In addition, previous members from prior years have also left large shoes to fill—but the student-run organization has worked hard to do so, and has been largely successful as well.

Both Rich and Brooker reiterate the same idea: A.C.E. has been so successful in recent years because of how remarkable the bonds between members are. Taylor Owen ’16, the current president of A.C.E., agrees with both Rich and Brooker in this sense, but also feels that the increasing success of A.C.E. events is tied largely to the increase in members’ commitment to the organization as a whole. Members have devoted more and more of their time outside of meetings to coming up with exciting new ideas and acts, and have taken their positions more seriously in recent years as well. While members agree that A.C.E. is an extremely fun organization to be a part of, it also requires a lot of hard work behind the scenes to make such phenomenal events possible. On the days of fallfest and springfest, members get up in the wee hours of the morning and then scramble around for much of the rest of the day to make sure that band members are happy and that the concert will happen without a hitch.

As most past and present members will tell you, A.C.E. opened up an entirely new world for its participants. Students got the chance to meet famous artists, make lasting friendships, and even get some real-life work experience in the process. Being able to say that during your college career you were able to organize large, successful concerts is no small feat—to say the least. But, while the Association for Campus Entertainment provides members with plenty of hands-on experience for the world outside of campus, its successes are largely driven by the pragmatic, talented members that have been played such integral roles in creating the magic behind the scenes happen.