Metropolitan State University of Denver is a community-anchored institution that relies on community partnership and civic excellence to provide the best education to its students. Within each department and program, students, faculty members and staff members engage meaningfully with the community through various activities and projects. The Department of Undergraduate Studies is working to centralize all these projects into one platform.
Collaboratory
Collaboratory is a front-facing platform that was created for civic- and community-engaged activities. It is also the primary tool used when applying for the 2026 Carnegie classification for Civic and Community Engagement. For MSU Denver to present a dynamic and competitive application, the University needs all the examples of Roadrunners interacting with the community in mutually beneficial ways to be represented in Collaboratory.
Undergraduate Studies will hold two workshops on all things Collaboratory this spring. Feel free to stop by, grab some coffee and pastries and learn about how Collaboratory works and get your activities logged with onsite assistance.
Logging in to Collaboratory: violins for kids
El Sistema, a community music program, encourages early-childhood students to engage meaningfully with music. The program teaches preschool-age children leadership skills, teamwork and instrument-readiness. Ingrid Larragoity, executive director of El Sistema, partnered with Elizabeth Parmelee, Ph.D., associate vice president of Undergraduate Studies, and John Wanberg, M.A., professor of Industrial Design, to create 3D models of violins.
Wanberg designed and 3D-printed parts for 100 violins, and Undergraduate Studies chose a time for MSU Denver students to assemble the pieces. This past fall, 20 MSU Denver students and eight El Sistema employees participated in assembling the violins. The violins were sponsored by the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, via Dean John Masserini, DMA.
If you have a community– or civic–engagement project you’ve worked on and would like to see it highlighted for the MSU Denver community, email Cheyenne Calderon at [email protected].