Spark Week usually happens after spring break each year, and it’s an opportunity to get students out of the typical classroom and see works, presentations, and performances from many different people in the creative field. This allows students to become inspired by the many works of these people.

Spark Week is an important week for students to take a break from their regular school schedules and learn about the many different careers involved in the arts.

“I mean, you never know. It’s a break from what we do. And again, not taking anything away from the importance of the classroom, but it’s a nice break away from that to hear other people’s perspectives. We can talk about, well, in the field of photography, there’s this. It’s like, whoa, but to actually bring in an actual photographer who’s been around the world and, you know, taking pictures of wildlife in Africa and stuff like that. It’s much better coming from them,” said teacher Mark Lard.

Spark Week is an important opportunity for students to be able to learn about many different creative jobs. Students are able to hear from many different people in the creative field.

“We like anybody from the creative field. So if it’s anything that could spark, no pun intended, creativity in students, we want that person talking to our students,” said librarian Tom New.

Many other schools do a “Writer’s Week” where schools bring in many authors and other writers. Teachers here wanted a similar idea, but less limited.

“From the start, we wanted to do something a little bit different. Yes, we do bring in authors, but we also want to bring in performers and other things because we thought it was just a little bit too limited. And we wanted, you know, musicians and other types of performers,” Lard said.

Spark Week was able to let students get some insight of what a career in the creative field would require.

“I also learned about the process of writing and how long it takes, how much effort you really got to put into that it takes a lot,” said sophomore Hailey Solis.

Many teachers enjoy planning Spark Week and look forward to it each year.

“I think it’s selfish of us, as the people that organize it, but we get to bring in people that either we know and we’re like, ‘The world should know about this person’s talent.’ Or be like our chance to say, ‘Okay, that inspired you, how can I translate that into the classroom?’ So, it’s kind of fun,” New said.

Students enjoyed Spark Week this year. They got to experience many different speakers and bands for Spark Week and enjoyed the overall experience.

“So, personally, I really enjoyed Spark Week because I got to experience new things. Like I saw this really cool band. One guy was playing the congos; he was pretty good. He appeared, and he was playing the. It was pretty cool,” Solis said.

Spark Week is still improving and growing as the years progress. Culinary has become an option to present at Spark Week, and students were enjoying the culinary presentations.

“It always amazes me the range of what we can bring in. We never really, until the past few years, considered culinary. And now we find that some of the more popular things students like to see is culinary or in the culinary world,” New said.