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Get Involved
Who is joining the Collaboratory?
The Collaboratory provides opportunities for...:
- Students to put Christian faith into action through creative, hands-on problem solving and the application of their academic studies.
- Professionals to serve the role of a teacher and player-coach, developing student leaders while also making hands-on professional contributions in their field of expertise.
- Alumni to contribute as financial investors or professional consultants, either by coming on campus or through distance advising technology.
- Partners to benefit from the work, contributing to the professional and spiritual growth of students and professionals.
- Investors to put their values of investing in the next generation and empowering the poor into practice.
What makes us The Collaboratory?
We are the Collaboratory because we collaborate, but for us collaboration is more than students, professionals, and partners working together. In the Collaboratory, we serve our partners. Because God is at work everywhere and in every culture, we expect to learn both from our work and through relationship with those served.
For Students
Why Collab?
Students in the Collaboratory are workers and leaders on project teams that connect their area of study to Christian faith and service. We use what we are learning in our courses to help real people in our region and around the world. People count on Collab to provide imaginative solutions to their pressing problems.
What Members Do
- Serve locally and internationally in Jesus' name.
- Work on projects: planning, designing, testing and implementing.
- Lead groups, projects, and site teams.
- Meet weekly for a time of worship and Christian discipleship.
- Live the gospel in life, word and deed.
How to Join
To join, please visit us for our discipleship meeting held every Thursday during chapel. Once there, a Collaboratory member or leader will direct you to projects you may be interested in and record your visit.
If you have additional questions about the Collaboratory or how you might get involved, please feel free to contact the Student Director at collaboratory@messiah.edu.
For Professionals
Why Join Collab?
Collaboratory volunteers are educators, alumni and friends who partner with students at Messiah University on projects that enable them to use their gifts and professional abilities in service to Christ. The great accomplishments of every generation are almost always the work of students: people able to pay attention to and learn from others.
Our volunteers mentor the next generation of Christian servant leaders while also making hands-on professional contributions to projects. Faculty members who advise in the Collaboratory also have opportunity to contribute to their teaching, scholarship and institutional service goals for term tenure and promotion.
What Professionals Do
- Serve locally and internationally in Jesus' name.
- Share leadership with students of groups, projects, and site teams.
- Work on projects plan, design, testing, implementation.
- Meet weekly for a time of worship and Christian discipleship.
- Live the gospel in life, word and deed.
Roles
- Project Review Panelist (low time commitment, 1.5 hours every few months)
- Project Consultant (medium time commitment, 1 hour every other week)
- Project Manager (high time commitment, 1-2 hours every week)
- Site Team Leader (high time commitment, 2-3 weeks and 2 hours per week for 6 weeks of preparation)
What is Shared Leadership?
Professionals sharing leadership with students is a core strategy for mentoring and Christian discipleship in the Collaboratory. This model allows professionals to empower students to make choices and learn from mistakes, while also working to protect the interests of our clients. These individuals aim to work themselves out of a job by developing student leaders to assume increasing responsibility, and transfer authority commensurate with the students' maturity and ability.
Please contact the Director to learn more about volunteering with the Collaboratory:
Jeremy Freimark
Director of the Collaboratory
717-796-1800 ext. 2630
jfreimark@messiah.edu
For Partners
Why be a Partner of the Collaboratory?
Clients are organizations that empower the poor, promote justice for the oppressed, reconcile adversaries, and care for the earth. Collaboratory projects are a response to goals articulated by our clients. We specialize in long-term partnerships that enable repeat Collaboratory teams to understand local contexts and reduce the logistical support burden on our clients. Client organizations receive a tangible and sustainable benefit while also contributing to the professional and spiritual growth of a new generation of servant-leaders for church and society. 
What Partners Do
- Receive a tangible and sustainable contribution toward the goals of the client organization
- Give back to the mission of Messiah University by enabling students to live out their Christian faith through projects that also engage their academic disciplines.
- Support Collaboratory project team members as they seek to understand local culture, the church, and what God is already doing among those served.
- Provide in-country logistical support, including housing and in-country travel arrangements, for individuals and teams who visit to complete project work.
- Recognize the risks and limitations of working with students, including potential delays due to inexperience and the academic calendar.
How are Collaboratory projects funded?
Client organizations share responsibility with the Collaboratory for funding projects. Student travel costs are often raised by Collaboratory participants while capital costs are often provided through the development staff of the client organization. Research and development funds for project have been made available through our clients, the Collaboratory, and third parties.