Spark Lab Makerspace Becomes a Center of Innovation
by Haleigh Ehmsen ’16
The first floor of Haggar College Center has become a Shangri-la for creation. The same area where some alumnae remember visiting the Helpdesk for IT support and others remember the campus bookstore is now a space dedicated to women-led innovation and technical skill development. Within its 10,000 square feet is a key space that will act as a magnet for a new generation of makers and leaders and will double down on Saint Mary’s strategic vision to be an institution of lifelong learning by embracing professional advancement for women in all phases of life.
The Spark Lab is an expansive makerspace with shiny polished floors, high-top workshop tables, bright, industrial lighting, and an initial assemblage of creative technology. Here, students will explore idea development, commercialization, business formation, prototyping, and entrepreneurial efforts.
The lab is also open to women in the community, building off the strength of the College’s SPARK Business Accelerator program by assisting area women in launching businesses and pursuing growth in their professional arenas. SPARK’s 8-week courses also meet on the first floor of Haggar.
Dana Strait, senior vice president for strategy and finance, said the College has been working toward this vision since 2020, inspired by faculty proposals for a makerspace that date back to 2018. It involved collaboration with faculty and staff of the College as well as the investment of multiple funding organizations and regional partners, including the University of Notre Dame’s Idea Center. The Spark Lab’s advisory council—made up of faculty and staff across disciplines such as math, theatre, physics, art, English, and education—leveraged the Idea Center’s expertise and guidance from Regional Innovation and Startup Education (RISE) to help design a space that would meet the needs of the Saint Mary’s students and empower them to gain new skills while learning more about their passions and talents.
“Makerspaces can take many forms,” Strait said. “The Spark Lab is designed to improve women’s access to skill-based learning in disciplines known to be strengths for Saint Mary’s College, including health sciences, STEM, and the arts. Students in all disciplines will have access to learning industry-valued skills that are in demand by employers, regardless of their major or minor.”
The 5,000-square-foot flexible workshop gives all students a place to prototype and small-batch manufacture a range of physical and digital products. It is adjacent to a newly renovated office suite and collaborative classroom used by programs using the lab.
Strait envisions that, in addition to completing their major, Saint Mary’s students will access the lab to add to their resumés and enhance their value in the workforce by developing practical skills related to manufacturing and technology.
“There’s a promise of creating industry-ready graduates who have the skills to serve the community in a variety of careers,” said Strait.
And beyond Saint Mary’s undergraduates, College alumnae and women in the greater South Bend community will also be able to use the Spark Lab to experiment with prototypes or create something new. With the lab, the College is expanding entrepreneurial capacity and skill development among women in the region, including graduates of the SPARK Business Accelerator program that seek support in launching product-based businesses.
The space officially opened this spring and has already led to unique projects and collaborations. Kenneth Douglas’ music education class used the Spark Lab to build guitars. Campus groups created French crosses and engraved keychains for student events. And a Girl Scout troop made t-shirts—introducing many girls to campus. Spark Lab is also a hallmark of Saint Mary’s summer pre-college and camp programs this year, including two entrepreneurship-oriented programs, one for middle school-aged girls and another for those in high school. These have attracted numerous new partners to campus during the summer months, including youth from the South Bend Community School Corporation.
A coordinator for the Spark Lab started full-time in May: Shreejan Shrestha now serves as innovation scholar, working to help realize the space’s potential in supporting students and partnering with the community. Two faculty members—Michaela Duffy, MFA, professional specialist in scenography in theatre, and Jeff Greiner, Ph.D., assistant professor of education—serve as faculty co-leads.
Duffy was on the advisory council that helped to imagine the space. She plans to use the lab’s capabilities to support work done for her stagecraft course. She will use one of the Spark Lab’s adjacent classrooms, as well as the tools and resources available in the makerspace, so her students can develop new models for lighting, sound, and costumes.
Duffy said the Spark Lab invites students to be creative in how they design a theater stage. Vinyl cutters, laser engravers, and modeling for scenery are all tools at their disposal. The lab also has computers with software that enable students to have more versatility and flexibility in their design process. Duffy described how, prior to having the lab as a space to land, her class was nomadic, gathering in places around Moreau Center for the Arts. Now her students will have dedicated space to innovate.
“The Spark Lab is an asset to the Saint Mary’s community and gives us the opportunity to use creative problem solving educationally,” Duffy said. “It also encourages students to play around with things that might be of interest to them.” According to Strait, the space was designed to focus on four strengths unique to the College: 3D modeling, part creation and engineering, textile manufacturing, and medical making.
Greiner, also a member of the advisory council, used his background in instructional design to offer insight into how faculty might incorporate the space in their coursework. He says he’s excited about helping colleagues envision how they might use the Spark Lab to enhance the learning experience.
Phase one of the innovative spaces within Haggar has been wholly grant-funded, receiving nearly $1 million from regional partnerships including LIFT Network, Judd Leighton Foundation, Ball Venture Fund, and the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI). To go along with the Spark Lab is a collaborative workspace / lounge area, with new offices for support staff and collaborators.
A vision for the near future includes industry credentialing to support talent development of skilled, certified, industry-ready graduates into the South Bend-Elkhart regional workforce. Planners see this as a bridge to industry for students and community participants—particularly those with interest in engineering, computer science, health sciences, textile manufacturing, or design.
Those who once could only dream of the space, who spent months exploring the vast possibilities, have created a bold resource for student and community entrepreneurs to utilize, enabling them to contribute their higher-value technical skills to a fast-changing workforce.
Haggar: A Building Dedicated to Trailblazers
The location for the Spark Lab is fitting: Haggar College Center. While the building began as the Alumnae Centennial Library, a gift from College graduates to honor the Sisters of the Holy Cross, it was renamed for Joseph Haggar, Sr., in the ‘80s in conjunction with extensive renovations. Haggar was a visionary and innovator when he began his business, Haggar Apparel, with just two sewing machines in 1926. Within two years, the Lebanese immigrant and entrepreneur had 500 employees producing 75,000 pairs of pants annually. The company went on to become one of the largest men’s clothing brands in the world. Haggar was also the father, grandfather, and great-grandfather of several women who attended Saint Mary’s: daughter Rosemary Haggar Vaughan ’48; and granddaughters Patricia Haggar Turner ’67, Victoria Vaughan Miller ’72, Lydia Haggar Novakov ’72, Marian Haggar Bryan ’76, and Mary Lynn Vaughan ’77.
