(Coppell, Texas – March 8, 2024) CISD Business Students on the New Tech campus today announced a new business named SPARK to offer enrichment courses for CISD students grades 5-8. SPARK aims to ignite a spark in young students within The District with a substantial course offering, including robotics, coding, intro to AI, graphic arts, public speaking, soccer, and arts & crafts. Courses will be taught by skilled high school students on the New Tech campus in Coppell and supervised by CISD teachers. The first courses start on April 11 and involve seven one-hour classes spread over a period of seven weeks.

The start-up and operation of SPARK is a collective effort of approximately 60 New Tech High business students under guidance of their business teacher, Marieke Mastebroek. “Applying knowledge learned in class to the real world is invaluable for these kids,” says Mastebroek, former entrepreneur and Big-4 consultant. “They are learning that to be successful with an actual start-up they have to push themselves a bit beyond the requirements of a typical high school project.”

SPARK believes it is not just their below-market pricing that make its enrichment courses interesting to the parents of Coppell ISD. “The students we hired to teach the courses went through a staffing process and we are impressed with them. I feel confident about their ability to transfer their knowledge and skill in their field of expertise to younger kids,” says Sanya Pillai, New Tech High junior and Executive Director of SPARK. “In addition, I believe that many kids learn better from older kids than from adults. Kids tend to get inspired to acquire the same skill or knowledge when taught by a teacher who is just a few years older and already possesses that skill or knowledge. It makes things more tangible for them.”