join spark

Our Fall 2023 applications are now live and blue apps are due on Thursday, September 7, 2023 at 11:59PM EST. Red apps have been extended to Friday, September 8, 2023 at noon EST!

Apply for Blue

Apply for Red

General Info Session

Tuesday September 5th, 7-8pm EST

Interested in learning more about Penn Spark? We are hosting a General Info Meeting on Tuesday September 5th, at 7:00pm EST in Berger Auditorium (located in Skirkanich Hall at the engineering quad). Join us to learn more about what we do and get your questions answered about our application process!

Why Join?

Gain Experience

Members gain a range of technical and interpersonal experience through project development on teams. Blue members learn and apply our tech stack of Figma (for designers) or HTML/CSS, React.js, and Django (for developers), while Red members deepen their current skillset through building more technically rigorous projects. We accept students from all majors and experience levels, and highly encourage anyone with a curiosity for tech and/or design to apply!

Join Our Community

Outside of work, our organization has a strong emphasis on community. This upcoming semester, we’re planning on doing our first overnight club-wide retreat 👀, intra-club mixers, food runs, study sessions, BYO/karaoke, and general member hangouts. For more information, check out our community page!

Pursue Professional Growth

Spark fully encourages the professional growth of our members. Our Red members have the opportunity to gain industry experience by working closely with our clients, and some of our members even go on to pursue paid full-time internships with our client companies. Additionally, Spark hosts a mentorship program between upperclassmen and underclassmen, workshops on resume writing and recruiting, and an internal referral network.

FAQ

01. Do I need to be interested in both tech & design to join?

Nope! As long as you're curious about one of the fields, we welcome you to apply. We don't expect developers to design or desginers to develop, although the option is open if you're interested in both!

02. Which track should I apply for: Blue or Red?

For Developers: If you have CIS1200/equivalent experience, familiarity with web development frameworks (or can pick up new frameworks fairly easily), and/or previous software engineering internship experience, we recommend applying for Red. If you're new to coding or web development in general, we recommend applying for Blue. Feel free to apply for both if you're unsure which one suits you better!

For Designers: If you have experience with Figma/Adobe Suite, a design portfolio, and/or previous design internship experience, we recommend applying for Red. If you're new to design or looking to build up your fundamentals, we recommend applying for Blue. Feel free to apply for both if you're unsure which one suits you better!

03. What makes a strong applicant?

While there's no cookie-cutter answer, we generally look for curiosity in tech and/or design, community-fit, and demonstrated interest in our org.