Student Story

In spring of 2022, Spark partnered with the Gates Corporation to facilitate an in-school career workshop called “Empowering Creators” at Merrill Middle School. The workshop included over one hundred 6th, 7th and 8th graders who collaborated with a large group of Gates employee volunteers. The workshop exposed students to the manufacturing industry and highlighted the variety of jobs and departments required to create successful products.

Students engaged in a business and engineering challenge that tasked them with designing and building a moving vehicle while incorporating a marketing plan and budget. Students were assigned jobs in the various “departments” (engineering, marketing, finance, and design) and worked together to compete against other groups. Ultimately the groups were judged on the completion of their vehicle, the distance it traveled and their marketing pitch.

I learned about manufacturing and how a team collaborates together to create an amazing outcome along with different professions I didn't know existed.

M y favor ite par t is w hen we did the projec t of dr aw ing the l ake and all the other things in the par k.

My fav orite par t of the

Spark ev ent w as getting to hear how they got to where they are and what they found interesting, making me want to tr y it.

My favor ite par t was the civil engineer, she was really great and I lear ned a lot.

[I lear ned] that there is all di erent t y pes of engineer ing.