The Latest and Greatest at Spark-Y

The past year has been one of navigating unknowns and growth for us at Spark-Y -- as it has been for many others. While the school year had a handful more Zoom calls than we had anticipated, we were able to pivot our programs and still reach 2,000 youth across all our programs throughout the school year. We are so proud of how we have grown as an organization, which is a testament to our amazing and dedicated staff. As we now gear up for summer programming we want to give some highlights of what we have done so far as well as what’s to come.

The Latest and Greatest: 

Spark-Y was featured in KARE 11 for our work with the City of Minneapolis creating a Rain Garden

At the end of May, we brought together around 100 youth and community members to transform the drainage basin next to Edison High School into a rain garden. We were offered the opportunity to take over this project by the City of Minneapolis and partnered with Great River Greening along the way, who really helped us make this project a reality. The goal of this project was to not only offer a paid, hands-on educational experience for the youth who participated but to continue involving the nearby community for the years ahead and continue a pipeline for youth to enter the workforce. Watch Kare 11's Belinda Jensen Interview our executive director, Zach Robinson and Great River Greening's Executive Director, Keith Parker on the significance and impact of the project. 

Interns maintaining the rain garden at the Holland Basin site.

Mobile Innovation Lab 

We have partnered with the Northside STEM district to facilitate the curriculum for The Mobile Innovation Lab aka “The BEAST” for 4 sessions throughout the summer. The BEAST is a mobile bus that innovates STEM educational experiences in North Minneapolis and beyond. By providing an accessible opportunity for youth to engage with hands-on STEM education, programming for “The Beast” centers around the principles of Maker Education and creates “sandbox experiences” where creativity and innovation come effortlessly, and there is ample opportunity for mastery and exploration. Students have the opportunity to engage with many different activity stations while on The BEAST ranging from 3D printing to electronics & circuitry. 

Annual Spark-Y Internship 

Our Annual Spark-Y Internship just kicked off! This internship gives youth the opportunity to develop personal and professional skills with a focus on sustainability and entrepreneurship. Upon completing the program students will have had a variety of real life experiences that will help strengthen their resumes and expand their understanding of what it means to be an urban steward for sustainability. The projects in this internship focus on annual and perennial plant care, vegetable production, community engagement, aquaponics, fish and plant care, restoration, and beautification of urban areas. 

Interns providing garden maintenance at a partner school, Friendship Academy.

Internship Open House 

Join us for our internship open house on August 5th at 5pm! This will take place at our headquarters 681 17th Ave NE Unit 101, Minneapolis, MN.

Open Position: Program Manager

Seeking a creative, equity-driven program manager. They facilitate hands-on activities focused on STEM, sustainable systems, and entrepreneurship. The ideal candidate is able to promote a learning environment conducive to creativity, curiosity, youth leadership, and accessibility for students from diverse backgrounds. The PM dynamically leads programming by cultivating youth engagement, culturally sustaining learning, leadership, and empowerment. They collaboratively manage school relationships, oversee data collection and analysis, and know the status and progress of every Spark-Y program ongoing and upcoming.

To apply, send a resume, a cover letter that details your experience with sustainable systems, and a 3 minute video explaining your teaching philosophy to jobs@spark-y.org.

Applications due by 5pm 02/24/2021

Generation Futures: My First Job Search

Generation Futures - Future professional career Jamboard

Hi everyone, my name is Shilah Hang (SHY-LAH), I am a 9th grader that goes to Community School of Excellence. I attend Generation Futures with Spark-Y, which is a wonderful program that can help you with your future. For example, they help us write a resume, set goals for ourselves, and job search. Generation Future is a great start for learning how to get a job. They have great leaders to help guide us to success. I joined Generation Future because I want to learn how to find a job for myself. I wanted to be able to write a resume to help me get a job without being confused about how to write one. I want to start off my career with good help from great teachers.

One lesson I enjoyed and learned from at Generation Futures, is how to job search. It was my first time job searching because it was something I've never tried doing. I was very excited and it was interesting to see all different kinds of jobs there are. What I learned from this experience is that it is hard to start a career with your dream job immediately because you need experience. You can start with a job that is a good start and then work your way up to your goal. One of the Generation Future leaders, named Kata (Spark-Y Education Director), said before she worked at Spark-Y, she was working as an educator on a boat and then she came to Spark-Y and is now helping people like me. This is a great experience and is a great opportunity. It was cool to hear all the different jobs the leaders had before working at their current job. I have met wonderful people. I highly recommended joining a program like this, trust me it will really help you.

My dream job is doing music. I want to do music because it is always something I wanted to do. I want to sing, write, play all kinds of instruments, and produce music. What I learned from Spark-Y is that I could start off on an entry level job and work my way up to what I want to do. I learn to set a goal for myself if I want to do music. It benefits me to motivate myself to try harder and never give up. It benefits me if I can find a job easily and when I need help I can email one of the teachers. Getting this experience is important because finding help like this is hard. Sometimes you might struggle and might not know what to do. It is important that I experienced it because the teachers have shown me ways to get experience so I can start to achieve my goals.