As a Marian University's Ancilla College Faculty or Staff member, many times you are the first person our students approach for help and guidance. The following is a quick guide to help you submit SPARK alerts that will support student success. ALL employees are asked to use the SPARK alert system to report concerns!
SPARK is the Marian University case management system to report, respond, and monitor student concerns, including absences, behavior changes, and academic performance. Each employee is expected to utilize SPARK to report concerns. As student concerns are entered in SPARK, members of the Student Success and Engagement team will assign the student to an appropriate resource, such as success coaches, Dean of Students, athletic coaches, etc. Use of the SPARK site increases our ability to effectively support the wellbeing and success of students individually and as a campus.
SPARK is both a system and a group of people. When you submit an alert referral, the information goes through the SPARK system to the SPARK team. It is then evaluated and the team determines the appropriate level of outreach to the student. The outreach is tasked to an appropriate champion, who conducts the outreach and reports back to the team. Champions DO NOT reach out to the student with “Oh, I received a SPARK alert about you”. The champion is expected to engage in a genuine, caring way, maintaining trust and building a relationship based on care.
Any member of the MUAC community can submit a SPARK alert: marian.pharos360.com
There are two basic categories of SPARK alerts: Academic (missing work, attendance, engagement, lack of academic readiness, poor scores, disinterest) and Personal (stressful life events, illness, injury, change in appearance, change in living situation, financial concerns, behavioral changes, lack of social integration, co-curricular activities). There’s also a large third category: other. If you are worried about a student, please submit a SPARK alert. Sharing this information will help us see patterns in behavior and enable us to assist the student.
We encourage you to become a student success champion. A student success champion is an individual with the knowledge, skills, and talent to reach out to students in need of support. The first step in becoming a champion is learning how to help at risk students, and knowing when to submit a SPARK alert to the SPARK team.
Jean Wolfe