5 Outstanding Capstones from the SPARC Leadership Institute

Every year, summer and auxiliary professionals join the SPARC Leadership Institute for a comprehensive professional development experience led by SPARC Senior Advisors. This 10-session intensive culminates in each participant developing a capstone project—an initiative inspired by and developed during their time in the Leadership Institute that they can implement in their own schools and programs.

Five capstone projects were shared in a recent SPARC webinar highlighting the outstanding professional development achieved in the 2025-2026 Leadership Institute. Each project displays the strategic planning, creative problem solving, and skills learned that this year’s cohort are now implementing in their real-world professional lives.

Austin Schock, Extension Coordinator, Oregon Episcopal School

Family Events to Build Community and Generate Revenue

Austin oversees a mix of enrichment and base programming that serves students 5 days a week from 3:00-5:30 pm. During the week, his staff sees about 70% of the student body.

Austin noticed that it was during this after school programming that he could make a direct, personal connection with families. “And I was wondering, our programming is fantastic for students. Is there a way to take what we’re doing for the kiddos and do something for adults? What if we were to do something for families?”

This is how the idea for family events was born. Austin began with inviting families to RSVP for events--trivia night, a cozy night with stories and cocoa, and game night. Right away, 80-100 people from 20 or more families were showing up.

Knowing he was on to something, Austin then contacted Admissions, and together they decided to include families who were enrolled for the upcoming year. They designed a three-day event that included a school tour, playground time, and a build event. It was a huge success that allowed new families to see what the school was all about and get new enrollees excited to be OES students.

Austin says he learned he could "take hold of an opportunity of growing something and of showing that it could work in terms of building revenue." He added that "it's better to integrate the program with not only the school as a whole, but specifically admissions where they get to see families their students at school in a way that the rest of the school day could not necessarily provide."

Emily Roos, Auxiliary Programs Director, Lesley Ellis School

3-Tier Pricing Model to Support Equity and Sustainability

When Emily stepped into her role as Director, she inherited a strong and popular summer camp program. But as costs increased, Emily realized that one-level pricing was no longer financially feasible for many families. With a school mission focused on a joyful, inclusive, and diverse experience, Emily wondered how she could more effectively align the camp's pricing model with that mission. 

"I took that mission, broke it down, and tried to come up with a tiered system that financially and in terms of wording made it accessible to more students... my motto for camp and finances became equity plus sustainability, making a stronger program for everyone involved."

Emily began with a cost analysis, hiring a consultant to help her look at both fixed and variable costs--per student costs, staffing, facilities, etc.--as well as market analysis; then they identified areas where they could save money. She then developed a tiered pricing system based on the base cost of each camper.

Next, she developed community-centered camp language for each tier: Play it Forward, Community Rate, and Community Supported. Community Rate was the actual cost for the camper; Play it Forward was that cost plus an additional donation; and Community Supported was a reduced fee for families who needed support with the cost of camp.

To help track the roll-out of the pricing and language changes, Emily hired a intern to monitor the data coming in from engagement and enrollments. She's also developed a three-year plan to implement these changes over enough time to allow both staff and families to adjust.

This year's focus is on encouraging families to enroll at the Paying it Forward level to build funds for Community Supported. Emily's goal is to reach 22% of campers enrolling at the Community Supported level at the end of the three-year roll-out.

Samantha Ferguson, Director of Auxiliary Programs and Services, The Bishop's School

5-Step Framework to Standardize Department Processes

Samantha is the first person in her role as Director and she wanted to start by strengthening their foundation of core programs so they could scale over time. During her time in the Leadership Institute, her initial idea of developing an auxiliary department handbook changed to something more realistic for the near future--minimizing risk for school trips. 

"My first step was identifying that opportunity," Samantha says. "Trip processes varied by the trip leader, the trip type. domestic, international. There are waiver processes, permission forms, and risk language varied depending on department. There was no centralized system or platform to house all of these things."

Samantha began by designing standardized trip procedures, finding a platform, and creating standardized templates that stayed consistent across departments. She piloted these changes in day trips as well as an overnight domestic and an international trip. She's now in the process of collecting feedback and refining processes, which will be followed by staff training and publishing the new trip procedures.

A big part of streamlining these processes was standardizing language, which she did with legal advice. "No matter what the trip, if you're going on a water activity, we're going to add this waiver language. If you're going on a ziplining activity, we're going to add this language." CampBrain became the platform of choice; she learned that system and built it out for her program's needs.

Now, Samantha is ready to start writing the auxiliary department handbook with a section on trips. "What started a as foundational tool for me, for my department, turned into how I'm going to lead change and push change forward in all those other programs put under me."

Julio Lopez Martinez, Auxiliary Coordinator, Episcopal High School

After School Golf Program to Serve the Community and Generate Revenue

Julio's department was predicting a net revenue loss and he wanted to do something about it. He believed Episcopal's low profile and lack of public exposure meant prospective program participants weren't aware of what was offered. "I also felt like our resources, specifically our new golf center, which I think is pretty cool, is largely unknown," Julio says. 

Although new to the golf industry, Julio and his colleague Dan had experience in youth development and after school enrichment. Leveraging Julio's capstone project idea, they designed an after school golf program to utilize the new golf facility and generate much-needed non-tuition revenue. The program includes a mix of golf instruction and enrichment, with lessons at a virtual bay, a break with snacks, then more time in the bay or on the putting green.

The results so far are impressive. The program has a 5-star Google rating from 41 parents and very positive feedback from parent surveys. This year, they have an average of 312 campers per week--beating their goal of 300--with almost all of their weeks sold out. 

To build on this success, Julio and Dan are planning to open up the program to community campers in grades 3-6--as many as 12 per day at $350 per camper for an 8-week after school program--generating about $4,200 a day. Even factoring in the cost of a golf instructor and counselor, this new program would help close the revenue gap and has great growth potential.

"Hopefully this could lead to golf bay rentals or even memberships," Julio says. "It would be an excellent opportunity to expand our summer brand into the school year when we normally go pretty quiet." Julio is also looking to partner with the PTA and other organizations to create even more opportunities to leverage their new golf facility.

TJ Coogan, Director of Auxiliary and Summer Programs, Derby Academy

Rebranding A Summer Program to Reverse Enrollment Decline

After taking over as Director, TJ was handed a clear mission of making changes to rejuvinate a long-standing, but struggling, summer program known since 1989 as Derby Summer Arts. With enrollments declining, TJ knew summer needed some serious updating. 

TJ started by doing an analysis of who was enrolling and why their numbers were shrinking. "I realized we were losing kids, but we weren't losing entire families. We were just losing some of their kids... we figured out we had been pigeonholed. We were that arts camp, but we could be more."

The next step was a market analysis that included what programs were being offered by other schools and soliciting feedback from families. TJ's team discovered that families wanted more choice and more flexibility, both of which were weaknesses in Derby's summer program. Part of this was messaging; Derby Summer Arts had a strong arts focus, but also had STEM, sports, culinary classes, and more. 

This led to TJ's decision to rebrand and diversify Derby summer. Derby Summer Arts became Derby Summer Programs--though this new branding still includes a Derby Summer Arts program as one of its 4 tracks for the many families who still want it. The other tracks are a STEM camp, Summer Sports, and Camp Derby, a day camp. Each track offers a variety of choices so campers can have a more individualized experience. 

TJ's team also changed the camp structure to include many one-week sessions, allowing families to sign up for a week, go on vacation, then return and sign up for another week. There are also 2- and 3-week programs that families can add to shorter programs. "We have a lot more choice than we ever had before," TJ says.

Offering a greater variety of classes, more flexibility in scheduling, and rebranding to Derby Summer Programs has led to greater enrollment and family satisfaction while making Derby summer a quality, competitive choice in the Boston area market.

The next SPARC Leadership Institute begins Wednesday, November 24, 2026! Register now for ten 90-minute sessions led by experienced SPARC Senior Advisors and work with a cohort of professional auxiliary peers. 

The SPARC Leadership Institute is one of the many professional development opportunities offered by SPARC. Become a member school today to gain valuable access to webinar and roundtable recordings, professional tools, discounted event rates, and unparalleled community support via SPARC Connect.