Fueling Young Voices: PEF Supports SPARC Poetry

Thanks to the generous support of PEF members and donors, fifth graders across the Pacifica School District (PSD) are discovering their voices through SPARC Poetry—an arts education program that brings poetry, performance and social-emotional learning directly into classrooms.

SPARC, which stands for Stage Performance and Rhythmic Culture, is the flagship program of Bay Area Creative, an organization founded by a former educator in the PSD dedicated to building vibrant school arts communities and nurturing students’ confidence, creativity and connection to the world around them.

Each of the PSD’s ten fifth-grade classes participates in a 35-week SPARC workshop during the school year, including weekly sessions with trained performance artists and periodic events where families are invited to attend.

For the past several years, Briana Leung (Sunset Ridge Alumna) has led many of these workshops in Pacifica’s schools. During a recent visit to Ortega, PEF had the opportunity to see her and the students in action on a performance day, when the fifth graders were presenting the poems they had been workshopping over the previous weeks.

Briana began the session by circling students up for a warm-up to shake off the “yips” of sharing original work in front of their peers. Next, she reviewed the PEEPS framework - Projection, Enunciation, Emotion, Presence and Speed - to remind students of the different levers they had to make their performance dynamic and engaging, and she also covered the expectations for how to be a good audience. Then, one by one—and sometimes in small groups—students stood before the class and read their poems aloud.

What struck the visiting PEF team most was the emotional depth and honesty of the writing. Some poems were joyful and funny; others were somber and deeply personal—at times it seemed like the poems were quite therapeutic for the student sharing them. Our other observation was how respectful and caring the reception from other students was when their peers were presenting. Students listened attentively. No one reacted unkindly, even when some of the poems veered into topics that created vulnerability for the reader. 

Our takeaway was that the creative process that Briana had led the group through over the previous weeks and months had fostered a sense of community and connectedness within the group and had established a shared sense of trust. It was quite powerful to observe!

PEF is also pleased to support this wonderful program that was conceived right here in Pacifica. Mike Taylor, founder of Bay Area Creative, explains how his work as an educator in the PSD led him to launch SPARC Poetry:

“During my years as an educator in the Pacifica School District, I could see how essential it is for students to find their voices, develop empathy and realize how their words could shape the community. I launched SPARC Poetry in 2008 in Pacifica and taught the program here personally through 2021. Now in its 18th year, the program continues to teach those skills in a way that’s engaging, memorable and fun.”

Since the program’s founding in 2008, nationally recognized artists have led SPARC Creativity workshops in K–12 classrooms throughout the Bay Area, inspiring students to tell their stories, explore their emotions and engage creatively with the world around them. Each year, the program serves more than 6,000 participants across 100 school and community sites—including ~300 fifth graders at four Pacifica campuses.

“SPARC teaches kids that their words have power and their actions have impact,” Taylor adds. “It’s about confidence, listening and realizing your voice matters. When students perform their own words, they build empathy, courage and the power of self-expression.”

By funding SPARC Poetry for fifth graders, the Pacifica Education Foundation helps ensure that creativity, literacy and emotional learning remain central to education—empowering students to be expressive, confident and more deeply connected to each other and the broader community.