Celebrating 17th Annual SPARC Festival

Stacey May & Meghan J. Leavitt

The Mount celebrated the 17th annual SPARC festival from April 22-24. SPARC is an opportunity for students to showcase their scholarship, performance, art, research and creativity.  

It is mainly for senior honors students to present their honors research presentations, but all undergraduate students can do lightning talks, posters, panel presentations and concert performances.  

It is a great opportunity for students to present research that they have been work towards for over a year.  

This is not just for classes and something that is done with peers but also done outside of class working with professors.  

Many people who have honors projects spend much of their time since their Junior year working on their research. They draft proposals, attend monthly or even weekly meetings, write essays and create presentations based on their year-long findings.  

This is not just something that is done for certain majors. It gives anyone within any study the ability to participate.  

This variety can look like Communications majors or even people studying Neuroscience.  

It allows there to be a diversity of subjects and allows students to showcase their personal interests.  

The faculty address was given by Dr. Byunghee Choi, Assistant Professor in the Richard J. Bolte School of Business. Choi presented on “Job Reallocation and the Decline of the US Labor Share.”  

The keynote address was given by Dr. Iris de Rode, a Gibson Postdoctoratal Fellow at Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia.  

De Rode presented on “The Alliance That Won the American Revolution, France’s Forgotten Role in America’s Independence.”  

Along with academic presentations, there was an art exhibition, senior music recitals and theatre performances. The new editions of Lighted Corners, the Mount’s literary magazine, and Tolle Lege, the student theology and philosophy journal were also presented.   

Abigail Dacombe (C’26), Marisa Lippincott (C’26), and Ellie Stout (C’28) did a panel presentation on “Slowing Down as a Joy Machine,” discussing the shift from secularism to post-secularism using the works they read in ENGL 353: Joy After Secularism.  

Gregory Quire (C’26) is a cybersecurity major. He presented a poster on “Attack Surface Expansion in Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Environments.”  

Haille Otto (C’27) is a mathematics major who presented a poster presentation. She used her mathematics and Track and Field background to present on “Optimizing Scholarship Allocation to Maximize MAAC Championship Success in Women’s Outdoor Track and Field.”  

She presented with Tierney McCarroll.  

Many students are not just in classes but have an opportunity to share what they have accomplished in practicums around campus.  

Students who write poetry and edit for Lighted Corners had the opportunity to win awards and read their poetry in Phillips Library.  

It is important that all aspects of student work are displayed and appreciated around campus.