SparkNC was a pilot program funded by the General Assembly — with its first labs opening in 2023. It started with 17 school districts across the state. That will now have expanded to close to 30 districts by the end of this school year.
Dr. Lynn Moody, president of SparkNC, underlined the reason for the organization’s existence.
“How do we transform experiences that students have inside of high schools? We actually picked tech in particular areas like cybersecurity, computer systems engineering, those types of career pathways, because those were high-wage jobs for students,” she said.
Moody said the Spark labs in New Hanover County recruit advanced students, students with disabilities, and most importantly, those who aren’t necessarily exposed to careers in technology.
She recalled a time when she first started meeting with NHCS students to introduce them to the program.
“Almost all of them said, ‘Why am I here? Isn’t this for the valedictorian? Like you talk about cybersecurity, you talk about AI, this could only be for the top of the class. This could not be for me.’ And we started saying, ‘Yes, it is for you,'" Moody said.
In particular, Moody said that students who come from low-income families don’t necessarily have a network of business connections, but after going through Spark, they do.
“They're walking out saying, ‘I know somebody in one of these high-tech businesses. They've seen my work; they've seen my product. I see a future for myself,’” she said.
Moody sees value in students going through programs like SparkNC that do not give out A-F grades for coursework.
“I'll just have to say I have a real strong bias against standardized testing as being the only thing that we account for. It might account for something, but it usually accounts for economics, not really about students' ability. [...] You actually have to do the thing with us to prove that you have the competency,” she said.
Moody added, “The reason children of wealth accelerate so much faster than children of poverty is not because of intellectual ability. It's about exposure, network[ing], and [knowing] how to speak the language of business and have those experiences.”
While the legislature did provide the seed money for SparkNC, the expansion of the program came through other grant funding and private entities like Live Oak Bank, which is one of the main funders that outfits the New Hanover labs with technology and furniture. And the company takes an active part in aligning SparkNC’s mission to have students produce what they call ‘real world work’ or ‘market value assets.’
Kate Groat is the vice president of corporate philanthropy for Live Oak Bank. She said last summer, a group of SEA-TECH High School Spark Lab students worked on some solutions for her company.
“We offered them the real-world problem that we're facing, which is, we want Live Oakers to use AI," Groat said. "We encourage it, but there are different levels of comfort with AI, and there are 1,000 employees that we're trying to encourage to use it and use it responsibly and for efficiency and effectiveness. So how do we reach them?”
While Moody said Spark students can get high school credit for computer science, it’s mostly getting them ready for a career after school.
“When we first started, we got a lot of pushback. People saying, ‘Oh, parents aren't going to like this. It's not on their weighted GPA,’” she said.
Dr. Edith Skipper is the principal of SEA-TECH High School, and hosted one of the first Spark labs to open in the state. About 18% of SEA-TECH’s student body is enrolled in Spark classes, but the entire school can use the lab’s resources.
“In 34 years, it's the best thing I've seen in public education. Hands down. I want to run the entire school this way,” she said.
Sara Toothman has been the Spark Lab leader at SEA-TECH for the past three years. She’s been teaching for 15 years.
“I mean, it's all about the actual learning. So to that, the traditional carrots of education have flipped around here, and it feels way more authentic. I would not go back into a traditional classroom because of this, like you couldn't make me,” she said.
SEA-TECH’s lab is stocked with 3-D printers, photography equipment, a podcasting lab, computers with highly-coveted software, a soldering station, and telescopes. Students come and go from the lab.
While WHQR was visiting the lab, its 3-D printer was making a model for a SEA-TECH student who wasn’t enrolled in the Spark program. Toothman said he wanted to make a model of a historic invention.
“He's not my scheduled student. He just came today and was like, ‘Hey, I need help with a history project. I would like to make a replica of this printing press. I found this file. Can you help me get this on here?”
Kayla Glenn is a junior at SEA-TECH and started in the lab as a freshman. She also manages the district’s esports tournament, making sure all the technology is working properly.
“I am really good with school in general, but I learn better with hands-on stuff, and trial and error and getting to fail and then realize why I failed and then make it work,” she said.
Toothman agrees.
“Failure is not a naughty word. It's not bad here at all. It just gives us data and those data points are how we inform our next behaviors,” she said.
Tootham adds that education is truly driven by students’ interests.
“They have brilliant ideas, and I'm constantly listening to them, because their ideas are way better than mine,” she said.
SEA-TECH Junior Quin Gilb, along with two other classmates, Temple Olski and Alice Simon, had one of those industry ideas – a mental health support app that they’re presenting at the Apple headquarters in Raleigh at the end of the month. They’re one of five finalists to present.
The user interface for the app is an interactive online house — where users can journal their thoughts and feelings inside of rooms either privately or publicly, with certain controls built in. There’s also an option to get immediately connected to help if someone’s in a mental health crisis.
“It's more of a safe haven to get out all of your feelings and just feel heard and just take a mental break,” Gilb said.
While Moody is excited about the current expansion of the labs across the state, she’s hoping the legislature continues to support it.
“And fingers crossed that we'll get a budget this year and that will continue [...], we have bipartisan support in the House and the Senate. I’ve yet to talk to anybody in the General Assembly who has said, ‘I'm not for that,’” she said.
Moody added that SparkNC, with help from the Friday Institute, does exit surveys about three to four times a year to assess things like whether the student has produced a market value asset, a product for a potential employer, a demonstration of a skill – and whether they developed a sense of belonging.
“What we know is, if students have a sense of belonging, then they graduate on time. They come to school every day. They don't drop out,” she said.
