About
Spark offers hands-on activities such as coding, website design, graphic design, game development, and marketing, along with programs like Invention Lab, Invention Club, the Agency, and no-school day workshops. The program also hosts birthday party rentals, private events, Private Events & Corporate Team-Building Workshops, and School Field Trips. Youth in Spark programs have helped create branding for Spark on 7th, painted murals, and built picnic tables for the outdoor area.
• Ages: 11–18 years old
• Schedule: Invention Lab is a four-week, paid summer experience, and workshops are scheduled on no-school days as a child-care alternative for middle and high school-aged youth.
• Price: Private Events & Corporate Team-Building Workshops are limited to 50 people with pricing starting at $500, and No-School Day Workshops start at $45 per youth.
Spark is a Connected Lane County program bringing community, education, and industry together and offers safe spaces for hands-on STEM learning using tools such as 3D printers, sewing machines, and laser engravers. Invention Lab is a four-week, paid summer experience for high school youth historically underrepresented in STEM fields and aims to address the STEM equity gap and empower generations of creators, inventors, and leaders to address complex issues. The Agency is a paid work experience for previous Invention Lab participants and summer interns, and Invention Club is an after-school experience where participants meet weekly to learn and apply skills like human-centered design and rapid prototyping, culminating in a MESA showcase and entry into the Oregon MESA Day competition at Portland State University. In 2024, Connected Lane County merged codeORcreate and marketingJAM into one annual three-day coding and marketing competition called “codeORcreate,” open to teams of up to five youths and inviting Lane County high school students and Lane Community College students to participate.
Spark is part of Connected Lane County, an independent nonprofit established in 2014 that serves over 3,000 youth each year and provides CTE initiatives outside of public schools at its Spark locations. During the 2023–2024 program year, Connected Lane County served 3,248 youth who spent 45,019 hours in programming, with $588,654 in wages paid to youth and mentors. Connected Lane County partners with rural and metropolitan Lane County schools, educators, and businesses, and works collaboratively with Lane County school districts, industry partners, workgroups, and community organizations. Industry partners help prepare youth for life after high school by outfitting the Spark program with industry-standard tools and equipment, providing mentors, and hosting summer interns.
Connected Lane County intentionally and explicitly identifies and recruits historically underserved and underrepresented participants, and youth in its programs represent a wide variety of backgrounds and identities, including racial, ethnic, linguistic, diverse ability, neurodiversity, sexual identity, religious, socioeconomic, housing, and family status. Connected Lane County recognizes the importance of using curriculum and approaches that are culturally relevant and responsive to the communities being served. Connected Lane County received $5,000 in grant money from the Pacific Power Foundation to expand Invention Club into Lincoln Middle School in Cottage Grove, and will receive 2.5 million dollars over five years to support youth with disabilities in the Excelerator programs, funded by the US Department of Education as a subcontract from the University of Oregon. Excelerators provide fast-track training in high-demand fields like Culinary, Health, Manufacturing, and Technology, and Elevate connects youth to career learning through job shadows and internships.
Spark’s mission is part of Connected Lane County’s broader mission as a mission-driven organization striving to improve outcomes for underserved youth in Lane County. Any income generated from fee-for-service offerings at Spark is reinvested into programs to help serve those who need the programs most. The Agency has completed projects for organizations including the ABAE, the City of Eugene, the Eugene Education Foundation, Eugene Symphony, EWEB, Food for Lane County, Microsoft MakeCode, and Threadbare Print House.
Youth involved in creating Spark on 7th’s branding described choosing the name and color palette to reflect engineering and to “spark” inspiration, using bright and subtle tones so the space would feel like somewhere people can create and think with “limitless possibilities.” A Creswell School District staff member, Angela Dennis, described Spark-related tours as a way to give youth insight into things they might want to do for their life. Ashley Espinoza from Lane Workforce Partnership described Connected Lane County’s work as “efficiency- and action-based” with measurable outcomes. A student from Willamette High School, Skylar, shared that participating in tours and classes made them feel “more successful and more directed” and described the experience as providing “a staircase out into the real world instead of just a steep wall.”
Last updated January 6, 2026.
• Ages: 11–18 years old
• Schedule: Invention Lab is a four-week, paid summer experience, and workshops are scheduled on no-school days as a child-care alternative for middle and high school-aged youth.
• Price: Private Events & Corporate Team-Building Workshops are limited to 50 people with pricing starting at $500, and No-School Day Workshops start at $45 per youth.
Spark is a Connected Lane County program bringing community, education, and industry together and offers safe spaces for hands-on STEM learning using tools such as 3D printers, sewing machines, and laser engravers. Invention Lab is a four-week, paid summer experience for high school youth historically underrepresented in STEM fields and aims to address the STEM equity gap and empower generations of creators, inventors, and leaders to address complex issues. The Agency is a paid work experience for previous Invention Lab participants and summer interns, and Invention Club is an after-school experience where participants meet weekly to learn and apply skills like human-centered design and rapid prototyping, culminating in a MESA showcase and entry into the Oregon MESA Day competition at Portland State University. In 2024, Connected Lane County merged codeORcreate and marketingJAM into one annual three-day coding and marketing competition called “codeORcreate,” open to teams of up to five youths and inviting Lane County high school students and Lane Community College students to participate.
Spark is part of Connected Lane County, an independent nonprofit established in 2014 that serves over 3,000 youth each year and provides CTE initiatives outside of public schools at its Spark locations. During the 2023–2024 program year, Connected Lane County served 3,248 youth who spent 45,019 hours in programming, with $588,654 in wages paid to youth and mentors. Connected Lane County partners with rural and metropolitan Lane County schools, educators, and businesses, and works collaboratively with Lane County school districts, industry partners, workgroups, and community organizations. Industry partners help prepare youth for life after high school by outfitting the Spark program with industry-standard tools and equipment, providing mentors, and hosting summer interns.
Connected Lane County intentionally and explicitly identifies and recruits historically underserved and underrepresented participants, and youth in its programs represent a wide variety of backgrounds and identities, including racial, ethnic, linguistic, diverse ability, neurodiversity, sexual identity, religious, socioeconomic, housing, and family status. Connected Lane County recognizes the importance of using curriculum and approaches that are culturally relevant and responsive to the communities being served. Connected Lane County received $5,000 in grant money from the Pacific Power Foundation to expand Invention Club into Lincoln Middle School in Cottage Grove, and will receive 2.5 million dollars over five years to support youth with disabilities in the Excelerator programs, funded by the US Department of Education as a subcontract from the University of Oregon. Excelerators provide fast-track training in high-demand fields like Culinary, Health, Manufacturing, and Technology, and Elevate connects youth to career learning through job shadows and internships.
Spark’s mission is part of Connected Lane County’s broader mission as a mission-driven organization striving to improve outcomes for underserved youth in Lane County. Any income generated from fee-for-service offerings at Spark is reinvested into programs to help serve those who need the programs most. The Agency has completed projects for organizations including the ABAE, the City of Eugene, the Eugene Education Foundation, Eugene Symphony, EWEB, Food for Lane County, Microsoft MakeCode, and Threadbare Print House.
Youth involved in creating Spark on 7th’s branding described choosing the name and color palette to reflect engineering and to “spark” inspiration, using bright and subtle tones so the space would feel like somewhere people can create and think with “limitless possibilities.” A Creswell School District staff member, Angela Dennis, described Spark-related tours as a way to give youth insight into things they might want to do for their life. Ashley Espinoza from Lane Workforce Partnership described Connected Lane County’s work as “efficiency- and action-based” with measurable outcomes. A student from Willamette High School, Skylar, shared that participating in tours and classes made them feel “more successful and more directed” and described the experience as providing “a staircase out into the real world instead of just a steep wall.”
Last updated January 6, 2026.
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