The Collaboratory

From The Collaboratory

Contents 1 Overview 2 Foundational statements 2.1 Identity 2.2 Vision 2.3 Mission 3 Core values 4 Program strategies 5 Organizational FAQs

Overview

The Collaboratory is a center in the School of Mathematics, Engineering and Business at Messiah College that adds value to classroom instruction by providing students and educators with opportunities for service in the context of scholarly engagement. We enable members to apply academic knowledge and express value commitments through creative, hands-on problem solving that meets needs brought to us by client organizations, businesses and communities. Areas of engagement include projects in mathematical and information sciences, engineering, and business. For comprehensive results we also partner with disciplines and departments from across campus. Our focus is projects that empower the poor, promote justice for the oppressed, reconcile adversaries, and care for the earth. Clients receive a tangible benefit while also contributing to educational objectives of students. Projects enable students to engage classroom fundamentals in an authentic client-provider environment, and the Collaboratory is run by student leaders and the educators who mentor them. Our projects also connect the scholarship and service of faculty members directly to student learning. The purpose of the Collaboratory is to serve the pressing needs of our world today, while advancing the mission of our College to prepare men and women for lives of service, leadership and reconciliation. Visit the project highlights page to learn more about some of the great things happening in the Collaboratory.

Foundational statements

Identity

The Collaboratory is an organization of Christian students, educators, and professionals affiliated with Messiah College. We aspire to fulfill Biblical mandates to foster justice, empower the poor, reconcile adversaries, and care for the earth, in the context of academic engagement in the disciplines of our school. As God enables us to serve others today, we seek to grow as disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, serve as God's stewards over the resources of our academic disciplines, and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Vision

Increasing hope and transforming lives through education, collaboration, innovation and service.

Mission

To partner with organizations, businesses and communities in our region and around the world for projects in mathematical and information sciences, engineering, and business that serve disadvantaged people and care for the earth; and to develop our members' abilities and vocational vision for lifelong servant-leadership, and the courage to act on convictions.

Core values

Dokimoi Ergatai (pronounced doe-key-moy air-ga-tie) is a Greek phrase that means "Approved Workers". It is taken from a verse in the Bible: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15)." Dokimoi Ergatai (DE) reminds us of our desire to become God's approved workers and is foundation to the following core value statements:

• Sharing the Gospel of Christ in life, word and deed so that others may come to know him.
• Fostering lifelong commitments to Christian vocation and servant-leadership through peer and advisor mentoring and discipleship to Christ.
• Integrating our work and Christian faith by making wise use of gifts and abilities to serve the underprivileged around the world.
• Demonstrating God's love through creative applications of our academic disciplines that meet human needs while valuing local culture.
• Cultivating long-term partnerships with the communities we serve, to gain deep understanding and achieve sustainable results.

Program strategies

• Our projects are academically and professionally challenging, and they enable students to express Christian faith and value commitments through excellence in their academic discipline.
• Our students share project leadership and administration responsibilities with educators, and learn by seeing their teachers in action.
• Our educators connect their scholarship directly to student learning by making hands-on professional contributions to projects as mentors and members of project teams.
• Our Christian discipleship intentionally reflects on learning experiences, to sharpen vocational vision, foster servant-leadership, and nurture courage to act on convictions.
• Our project teams include students from multiple years of study for increased peer mentoring.
• We include multiple academic disciplines and partner organizations with their various modes of thinking and analysis for comprehensive outcomes.
• We are committed to projects that can span multiple generations of students to attain tangible and sustainable results.
• We integrate Collaboratory programming into curricula, to increase both participation and academic engagement by connecting Collaboratory work to faculty and student loads. (See Curriculum integration.)

Organizational FAQs

Q. How was the Collaboratory formed?

In 2000 the Provost of Messiah College authorized the formation of the Collaboratory to organize longstanding co-curricular service projects under the leadership of several faculty members in the Department of Engineering. The Harsco Corporation awarded a lead grant to form the organization. Additional major funding by Leif and Carol Uptegrove in 2004 enabled the Dean of the School of Mathematics, Engineering and Business to expand the mission of the Collaboratory to serve the MEB School, and encourage broader campus collaboration.

Q. What happened to the organization Dokimoi Ergatai (DE)?

DE began in 1996 as a single project but developed into an organization within the Collaboratory for Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research, an organization with structures and services needed throughout the Collaboratory to promote quality, collaboration and resource sharing between multiple project activities. The Director of the Collaboratory therefore asked DE members to merge their structure and support services into the Collaboratory, and to extend their identity and ethos as approved workers throughout the larger organization.

The idea of being Dokimoi Ergatai or "approved workers" for God speaks clearly to followers of Jesus, but the words themselves are difficult to pronounce and they do not communicate what we do to some off-campus partners who would understand "Collaboration", "Partnership", and "Applied Research". DE has experienced continual growth and change since its inception, a process that has brought us back to our early vision of connecting academics to Christian service in many disciplines. Although Dokimoi Ergatai is no longer an organization, it continues as the motivating principle for all that we do in the Collaboratory, and the heart of our Christian discipleship. Here is a link for those who want to learn more about the DE story.

Q. How will we use the words Dokimoi Ergatai (DE) in the Collaboratory?

Dokimoi Ergatai is our ethos, a phrase that expresses our desire to become God's approved workers, and it is the foundation of our core value statements. We have therefore made Dokimoi Ergatai the name of the Collaboratory newsletter, and the "DE" logo appears on numerous Collaboratory documents, and even our T-shirts, to remind us that we belong to God. Most Collaboratory participants also attend a weekly meeting, 6 PM on Monday nights in F110, for worship, discipleship, and community building. This is a time to reflect on and celebrate how God is teaching us to be his approved workers. To learn more about Dokimoi Ergatai please visit the Origins of the Collaboratory wiki article.

Q. Must I attend the weekly Collaboratory meeting?

No. Students and advisors in the Collaboratory are welcome to join together for this important time of worshiping God, growing as Disciples of Christ, and building community. Participation in the Collaboratory meeting will also be one of several factors considered in the appointing of leaders and Site Team members.

Collaboratory Groups may voluntarily covenant to attend the Collaboratory meeting, and would usually conduct a business meeting and/or work session immediately following the meeting. However, no one participating in the Collaboratory through enrollment in a course required for graduation may be required to attend as part of that course. (They may be required to attend if in addition to the course they apply to be part of a Site Team.) Some advisors will also not be available on Monday nights, because of family, church, or other commitments. When the advisor is not available, the advisor and student leader(s) will schedule a regular planning meeting at another time.

Q. When are the main project work times for Collaboratory projects?

An evening work session following a weekly Collaboratory meeting will continue to be an important work time for Collaboratory Groups. The presence of many Groups at that time greatly facilitates Staff support and collaboration. Beginning in the Spring semester of 2007, however, a Group that is not able to meet on Monday night may choose to schedule another regular meeting time. All Groups should have a predetermined and regularly scheduled work time, to facilitate recruiting, the work of the Group, and access to the Group by others.

Q. How will for-credit participation affect my Group?

Students participating in the Collaboratory through enrollment in a course (curriculum integration) will not be required to attend project meetings outside of class time; but neither does the class prevent Groups from scheduling work times apart from the class. Curriculum integration includes everything from a Group subcontracting work to a course project to Groups with a work time scheduled as a lab. For-credit participation will not affect student leadership in the Collaboratory. Leadership will continue to be service above and beyond course requirements. Also, Groups with a scheduled course-related work time may schedule other work times. Any student, moreover, may participate in a course-related work time even if not enrolled in the course.

The Department of Engineering's Integrated Projects Curriculum (IPC) is one example of curriculum integration. Beginning in the spring of 2007 the IPC will provide a Group Orientation course to equip engineering majors for work in on IPC-related Groups (Energy, Water, Transportation, Disability Services, and Communications) After that, beginning in the fall of 2007, the IPC-related Groups will have a lab section that engineering majors who have completed Group orientation can register for and get class credit for that work time. This will allow for a dedicated work time for the group to get work done during the day when advisors are available for the work. Any other work times, such as one following the weekly Collaboratory Meeting, are voluntary and scheduled at the discretion of the Group Leader and Team Managers. Students who have completed Group Orientation will have four semesters where they may earn credit. They may volunteer any semester at the discretion of Group leadership.

Q. Where is the organizational home of the Collaboratory?

The Collaboratory is a Department within the School of Mathematics, Engineering and Business and is amenable to the Dean and Department Chairs of the School. The Director of the Collaboratory reports to the Dean. To learn more about Groups, Projects, Site Teams, and other program and leadership structures that make up the Collaboratory visit the organizational structure page.

Q. How are decisions made within the Collaboratory?

The Dean of the School of Mathematics, Engineering and Business, the Department Chairs, and the Director of the Collaboratory comprise an Executive Committee to oversee organizational development of the Collaboratory. The Director, Student Director and Assistant Student Director provide executive leadership. They develop the organizational structure and programming of the Collaboratory, and comprise a Directors' Committee. Daily operations are managed by the Group Advisors and Student Leaders who form a Leaders' Committee. The Directors also serve as a Steering Committee for the Leaders' Committee. Through the Leaders' Committee all participants in Collaboratory programming, including those outside the School of Mathematics, Engineering and Business, have a voice in governance.

Q. Are faculty in the MEB School expected to participate in Collaboratory work?

The Collaboratory seeks to offer a compelling mission and vision that motivates considerable participation among educators, especially in the School of Mathematics, Engineering and Business. While the resources of the Collaboratory are meant to encourage teaching, scholarship, and service projects that fall within the scope of its mission and vision, many worthy projects and expressions of faithfulness to Christ do not fall within the scope of its mission and vision. The existence of the Collaboratory in no way precludes students or educators from other worthwhile pursuits, and faculty members are free to earn term tenure and promotion through teaching assignments, scholarship projects, and service activities entirely apart from the Collaboratory.