Sparks ignites ambitions of students

by Hylann Camacho, editorial assistant

For a lot of students, it is incredibly hard to arrive at school full of energy and ready to go in the early-morning classes.

John Sparks is just able to make it interesting and it is incredibly easy to be energetic in his class. He is a professor who can just keep you motivated.

Sparks is a Lubbock native and has lived in this area for quite sometime. He graduated from Monterrey High School in 1965. His extra curricular activity in high school was choir. He also tried football, but said he “didn’t really do well.”

Mr. Sparks decided to go to college after high school, and he chose to go to Texas Tech University, pursuing an advertising major. One day Sparks went to his advisor Bill Ross, the head of the advertising department at Tech at the time, and declared that he wanted to be more like Ross. He wanted to be a teacher. Ross also told Sparks that he thought that he would especially enjoy teaching at a community college. Sparks went on to graduate from Tech with a degree in advertising in 1969.

His new degree then carried him to an advertising job in Columbus, Ohio. Everything seemed to be working out. He was making a significant amount of money at his new job, but something wasn’t right. He missed his home.

“I genuinely missed the plains, and I had to go to another place to realize that,” Sparks says after about three or four months of living in Columbus, he returned home.

When he returned to Texas in the fall of 1970, he decided to go to graduate school at Tech. While in graduate school, Sparks moved to Lamesa and began working at the junior high and high school. The schools in Lamesa had received a federal grant and needed to hire someone to write stories to be distributed to the news media. That was when Sparks fell in love with TV.

At the junior high, they had a variety of broadcasting equipment in the basement that no one messed with because they couldn’t get it to work. Sparks figured out how to get the equipment to work, then he got students involved. Between him, the junior high and high school, they started their own TV program, on channel 8 in Lamesa that was produced by the students, with Sparks’ guidance.

While trying to create the program, Sparks found that the students needed money for their broadcasting equipment. So he had a garage sale at his house to try to get the funds. Although his garage sale helped out, it didn’t make all the money they needed for their equipment. Thankfully, a parent of one of the students donated the rest.

Also, while in graduate school, Sparks was employed at Boon Publications under a man named Don Cotton.

“I learned more from that man than any other person,” Sparks says.  He added that Cotton gave him a lot of encouragement and support.

He graduated in 1975 with a master’s degree in Journalism. In the fall of 1979 Sparks got a call from Steven Henry, a man who had bought The Hockley County News-Press. He also was someone who helped him a lot during his time in Lamesa. Henry had called to tell him about a job at South Plains College.

“He said I would love it here,” Sparks says “He was absolutely correct.”

The job he was applying for was teaching news writing, photography and all the classes pertaining to that subject matter, as well as running the Plainsman Press and yearbook.

“At first we didn’t really know what we were doing,” Sparks said about his early experiences teaching a telecommunications course.

As time went on, he noticed his print journalism and broadcast journalism classes were growing in popularity. Gradually, the department became larger, so large that Sparks was asked to make a decision about whether he wanted to strictly teach print or broadcast journalism classes. Although he liked both areas equally he eventually chose broadcast classes.

When asked about his favorite memory teaching, Sparks replied, “Hmm…That takes a little thought. My favorite memory is really a collection of memories, and they happen every day. They happen when I see kids get excited about what we are doing.”

Sparks received the college’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1999. In May he was honored as Outstanding Alumni at Parsons Elementary school for 2007. When Sparks does have free time, he enjoys playing guitar and is currently taking lessons at SPC from his guitar teacher, Steve Williams.

“He is one of the most incredible teachers I’ve had the opportunity to take a class from,” Sparks says. His two favorite guitarists are Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton.

The reasons Sparks said he enjoys teaching at SPC are the students and his colleagues.  He said that the students reminded him of himself when he was that age. He says the students at SPC are “hard working kids that are not spoiled and [they] are eager to learn.”

Also, the fact that students go here just to participate in the TV program makes him happy. Secondly, he enjoys the people he works with such as Billy Alonzo, Charlie Ehrenfeld and Jay Hoes. He added that he couldn’t have made it without the tremendous support from his bosses, Dr. Kelvin Sharp president of South Plains College, Darrel Grimes, vice president of academic affairs, and Yancy Nunez, dean of arts and science. He said that they “make it possible to do the things we do.”

Also, he is very grateful for the support and appreciative of the cooperation from the local Lubbock TV stations for hiring students and graduates from SPC.

As for advice for his students, Sparks says, “Have faith in God, and believe in yourself. The rest will take care of itself. Treat each other right. That’s not just for your career, it’s for your life.”