Our Story

The Octet Collaborative is the culmination of decades of work and prayer by Christians who have longed to see a Christian study center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Cambridge is a city blessed with a nearly incomparable wealth of intellectual resources; Octet is the outgrowth of Christian commitment to God’s call to seek the welfare of this city, where He has sent us, for the common good and for the growth of His kingdom. 

The Octet Collaborative came together as God orchestrated a series of relationships and conversations among local Christians devoted to the vision of Christian learning that animates the study center movement.  

2016 

Nathan Barczi, who earned his doctorate in economics at MIT in 2007, Kelly Madden, the executive director of the Boston Fellows, Dave Thom, an MIT chaplain and coordinator of the Cambridge Roundtable, and several other campus ministers come together to discuss the idea of a study center in Cambridge. 

2018 

Mia Chung-Yee, a concert pianist and professor of music at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia who resides in the Boston area, joins the group, creating a steering committee for the center’s formation. Her interest in a study center for Cambridge had been piqued after she gave a lecture on theology and music at Chesterton House, the Christian study center at Cornell University. 

2019 

The Veritas Forum hosts an exploratory conversation with MIT faculty and staff. In processing the feedback, the steering committee determined that:  

• The study center would be dedicated to human flourishing - both the flourishing of students and scholars within their vocation, and the equipping of students and scholars to promote human flourishing within their vocation.   

• The center would seek to re-integrate what modernity has tended to disintegrate:  scholars as human beings (mind, body, and spirit, in community with one another), the academic vocation (teaching, research, and mentoring), and the unity of all fields of learning, pursuing and promoting all through the lens of Christian faith and practice.   

• The center would need a physical presence on campus where community life is organized around spiritual disciplines and interdisciplinary discourse is pursued through the lens of faith. MIT’s centralized campus makes this possible.  

July 2020 

• Octet is launched. Nathan Barczi is identified as incoming executive director and Mia Chung-Yee as founder and board chair.  Mia recruits Karl Johnson, the former and founding director of Chesterton House, as Chief Strategist to build Octet’s infrastructure. 

October 2020 

• Octet holds its Summit on Human Flourishing via Zoom during the height of the pandemic.  

2022-2023 

After two years of remote gatherings and relationship building under Nathan’s leadership, Mia takes on the role of executive director. Nathan becomes the associate director and senior theologian. Octet launches Diálogos, intellectual hospitality events and two four-week courses: “Disagreeing Well” and “Science, Technology, and Ethics” during IAP (Independent Activities Period). 

2023-2024 

Now in its first years of in-person programming, Octet promotes human flourishing in areas that are of shared concern to the Institute. These include: 

• Extending intellectual hospitality to improve civil discourse. 

• Promoting wisdom through applied science and tech ethics courses. 

• Offering experiences that inspire awe and wonder to benefit mental health and encourage curiosity.  

What motivates these efforts is the Mark 12:29-31 conviction that the reintegration of the mind, body, heart, and soul in faith and loving our neighbors yield human flourishing. The Octet Collaborative will serve this mission to bless the MIT community for as long as His Spirit leads.