About Sabbatical Observations for those Considering Sending or Going
| Authors | Green, Matthew |
|---|---|
| Date | 2015 |
| Proceedings | Proceedings of the 2015 Christian Engineering Conference |
| Place | Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA |
| Vol / Pages | pp. 139u2013145 |
| URL | https://drive.google.com/file/d/11k9zlyvaVh2XJeuoxg-btM7RZlgRQ-PN/view |
Type: Conference Paper
Tags: Christian Engineering
Abstract
In 2013-14 I had a 13 month sabbatical from our engineering program with 500 primarily undergraduate students and roughly 20 faculty. My family of four relocated so I could re-join my alma-mater, a large state research university with over 7,000 engineering students and over 300 engineering faculty. During this time I worked on a web-accessible automatic 3D printing station for the engineering lobby, conducted human subjects research on crowdsourcing the identification of innovation, supervised graduate students, re-developed and taught design classes, and built as many friendships as possible. The experience was life-changing for me and my family in three ways: professionally, personally, and spiritually. This paper will provide encouragement for those considering sabbatical, ideas for those planning such an ambitious undertaking, and a value proposition to those considering funding sabbaticals.