OUr
STORY
Our Past, Present, and Future
Our founders, a few forward-thinking medical students at the University of Michigan,
were disenchanted with traditional, health-focused "service trips" and wanted to do more. The creation of what is now called Sa' Nima' Collaborative, began in 2004 with the idea that international outreach should be environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. After partnering with UofM engineering students, this idea would go on to be defined as "socially-engaged design".
Sa' Nima' Collaborative '19 / '20
In more recent years, our student-led group partnered with the NGO, CasaSito, to work with the community of Samox San Lucas, Guatemala to develop a bio-sand water filter for their schoolyard. Sa' Nima' members also collaborated with the school to teach English lessons and planned after school activities to get kids excited about science and math.
In 2014 Sa' Nima' joined as an official project team of the University of Michigan College of Engineering's BLUELab. That year Sa' Nima' began to pursue a solar lantern project in Samox, Guatemala. The team worked for two years to design and implement these lanterns, but finances and communication led the team to reevaluate and move to the community of Primavera del Ixcán, Guatemala which shares many of Sa' Nima's values. There, Sa' Nima' worked on clean water storage solutions.
Today, Sa' Nima' works with CasaSito-sponsored students based in San Cristobal Verapaz, Guatemala to implement sustainable solutions to their most pressing needs using the fundamental principles of socially-engaged design. In 2019 a needs assessment was performed that has shaped the projects to be ventilated stoves and mechanical washing machines. These engineering solutions were given to the families of Casasito Scholars in the summers of 2023 and 2024. In summer of 2025 a new needs assessment will be completed to ensure our team remains committed to the needs of the community we are serving.
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Sa' Nima' Collaborative is established for the express purposes of promoting socially-engaged design learning and of fostering leadership and career-building opportunities for its members and partner communities through environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable engineering projects.
Travel: May 2023
Travel: May 2024
Our Mission
Sa’ Nima’ Collaborative aspires to aid our partner organization, CasaSito, in promoting access to educational and economic opportunities for underserved Guatemalan students and their families through the co-creation of socially-engaged engineering solutions. Through our projects, we seek to equip leaders with skills to advance the common good.
BLUElab Values
Adapt: Having the ability to constantly reflect on projects to meet the ever-changing needs of community partners and current events occurring. Be comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.
Engage: Communicate within your community and those around it to learn from others about cultural differences and key values.
Include: Ensure all voices are heard at the table, and coming from all backgrounds.
Reflect: Actively think about whether or not BLUElab’s actions match the values we set forth.
Grow: Projects should be sustainable within the community with the ability to continue to be implemented within the community without the presence of the BLUElab team.
Be thorough: Agree to a thorough and well-thought-out process. Take precautions with the choices being made to ensure quality results. Projects should be executed without compromising future needs through consideration of society, culture, economy, and the environment.
