Timeline Stories Archives

Our new name, SparkPath, captures the goals of our programs: to ignite curiosity, creativity, and confidence and illuminate the amazing paths that lay before our students. 

SparkPath took over the coordination of the Twin Cities Regional Spelling Bee! The team was excited to offer students another option to pursue academic excellence, build confidence, and practice communication skills.

SparkPath worked with Knowledge Bowl Coordinators from Colorado and Washington to host the first-ever Virtual Knowledge Bowl Nationals tournament on Discord. Nine teams from Minnesota competed head-to-head with curious students from the other two states!

STEMLink, once known as STEMLink5, began as a one-day event at Normandale Community College. STEMLink has since expanded to four college campuses and now reaches hundreds of 5th and 6th grade students annually.

Knowledge Bowl expands their grades to include a Middle Grades Knowledge Bowl program for 5th-8th graders. Today over 100 middle grade teams compete yearly in the metro-wide Middle Grades Knowledge Bowl program.

17 schools participated in the inaugural Minnesota Regional Future City Competition (FCC) at Saint Anthony High School. Since then, the MN FCC has been hosted by the University of St. Thomas, University of Minnesota, Dunwoody College of Technology, and currently, Dakota County Technical College. Over 300 6th-8th graders participate each…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused schools to shift to distance learning. SparkPath quickly adapted and converted Knowledge Bowl, Young Authors Conference, The Creatives, STEMLink, and the Future City Competition to the virtual world!

1991 brought the start of SparkPath’s much-loved Young Author’s Conference, as Keynote Marion Dane Bauer focused on Writing From the Heart. What began as a small, single-day conference of a few hundred students has expanded into a five-day conference bringing together thousands of young writers each year.

Success Beyond the Classroom (now known as SparkPath) was incorporated as a Minnesota non-profit to house Metro ECSU (now known as BrightWorks)’s student programs.

Senior High Knowledge Bowl began in Fergus Falls, MN, coordinated by the Lakes Country Service Cooperative. The first KB season featured teams from only eight school districts in western Minnesota. Today, Knowledge Bowl has grown to include over 800 teams from across the state and is sponsored by the Minnesota…