Martha Woodroof

Gene Bowlen of Port Republic plays acoustic music and loves the musical "pot luck" aspect of performers' get-togethers.  He built a recording studio in his back yard to better catch the spirit of the sound.

What can you do with an art history major?  Long-time school guidance counselor and college administrative staffer Margee Greenfield became a freelance college admissions advice-giver when she saw a need.  Funding cuts to school budgets increased guidance counselor workloads and decreased the one-on-one attention they could give. 

What is a photon?  Solid state physicist Dr. Giovanna Scarel explains photons and why such tiny things are intriguing.

We meet Hawes Spencer, the founder and editor of fearless Charlottesville indy newspaper The Hook.

Trisha Brown Leweke says maybe Steve Jobs or J.K. Rowling wouldn't have grown up so imaginative if they were schooled in a No Child Left Behind curriculum.  She values daydreaming and she feels that an overemphasis on standardized test scores blunts students' creativity. 

In pants like that, he had to be completely self-assured.  Jenna Joseph recalls transferring into an area high school and seeing a peer whose merry rejection of youth fashion trends was endearing.

Actress, director, and playwright Ingrid De Sanctis talks about life, liberty, and a play she wrote based on another guest of The Spark:   Sarah Elizabeth Pharis.  Pharis' struggles against cancer while maintaining an active and artsy life were inspirational.