Partner with Us
Bring Your Community Project to SPARK
SPARK connects Michigan State University students with community organizations, public health partners, and local agencies around meaningful, community-driven projects. If your organization has a public health research, evaluation, data, communications, or other health-related initiative that could benefit from student support, we invite you to share your idea with us.
Through SPARK, community partners can connect with MSU students who are interested in applying their skills to real-world public health and community priorities. Projects may include data analysis, literature reviews, program evaluation, needs assessments, community outreach support, resource development, health education materials, mapping, report writing, or other applied research and public health activities.
What Types of Projects Are a Good Fit?
SPARK is designed to support projects that are grounded in community needs and offer students a meaningful learning experience. Potential projects may include:
- Analyzing community health data or local trends
- Evaluating a program, service, or outreach effort
- Developing surveys, interview guides, or data collection tools
- Supporting a needs assessment or environmental scan
- Creating public-facing materials, reports, dashboards, or infographics
- Reviewing research or best practices on a specific topic
- Helping organize, clean, or summarize existing data
- Supporting community-based research or health equity initiatives
Projects do not need to be fully developed before submission. If you have an idea, challenge, question, or area of need, we can help identify whether there may be a student, faculty mentor, or project pathway that aligns with your goals.
How it Works
- Submit your project idea.
Complete the Community Research Opportunity Submission Form to tell us about your organization, your project, and the type of support you are looking for. - We review the opportunity.
Submitted opportunities will be reviewed to better understand the project scope, timeline, student role, skills needed, and potential fit. - Students explore available opportunities.
Approved opportunities may be shared through the Community Research Opportunities Hub, where students can search for projects that match their interests and training. - Collaboration begins.
When a student expresses interest in a project, we will help connect the student, community partner, and any relevant faculty or project mentors to discuss next steps.
What Makes a Strong Project Submission?
A strong project submission includes a clear description of the community need, the type of student support requested, any expected timeline, and the skills that may be useful for the project. It is also helpful to identify what the student may produce by the end of the project, such as a report, presentation, dataset, literature review, evaluation summary, infographic, or other deliverable.
Submit a Community Research Opportunity
Are you a community organization with a research, evaluation, or health initiative that could benefit from student support? Share it with us!