The time is nearing for a special week in April known as Spark Week, and preparations are already underway by the Spark Week committee.
Spark Week is a week where students can get inspired and learn more about the creative types of jobs, such as being an artist, actor, writer or filmmaker.

“It shows people who are interested in making art that they can earn a living making art. My parents always said, ‘don’t go into anything artistic because you’re not going to be able to make a living,’ and I think a lot of parents feel that way and are worried about that,” said committee member and English teacher Amy Alderson.

Sometimes it can be hard for students to remember the possibilities they can have in a creative profession, making Spark Week a good time to show students professional people with the same interests and making money doing what they love.

“Part of all this is to say that creativity goes to baking cakes, to acting, to writing, to music, to art; it’s all over the place. The students’ creativity levels and also their awareness is brought out. People still talk to me about past presenters,” said art teacher and committee member Randy Sweitzer.

Each year teachers have to sign up for a time to take their students for that hour to see whoever is presenting. Spots might be hard to get due to the limited amount of seats in the black box where most of Spark Week is presented. That also means some students might not get to see who they really wanted to know more about.

“If you have a Spark Week presenter that you really, really want to see, not just because it’s fun but because maybe it’s something you are interested in doing, you can talk to the teacher that hour and ask them if they will allow you to come,” Alderson said.

Teachers usually jump to the opportunity to sign up for a presenter at any time they can.

“It’s really good to bring people in here and expose kids to real working artists,” Sweitzer said.

There is a lot that goes into making Spark Week like choosing presenters and getting them here. Other things the Spark Week committee has to work out is the schedule for the week, making shirts, feeding the presenters and other important things that go into making the week as best as possible.

“It’s cool to see the week come together because then you get to see what students can take away from this,” said English teacher and committee member Dustin Zubert.