1997

When Michael Wong first came to Pacific Union College in 1993, he had no idea what an Adventist was. Today, the president of PUC's Class of '97 is also a newly baptized Seventh-day Adventist Christian. Here is his story:Wong was born in the United States and raised in Singapore, where his father is a university professor. He grew up believing in a distant God. "We knew there was a God, kind of, but how He interacted with us or what He did in our lives really had no effect on the way we lived," he said. Wong knew next to nothing about the Adventist church. "All I knew about Adventists was from my ex-girlfriend's mom, who said, 'I've heard about these Adventists; they go to church on Saturday, and I've heard they're a cult,'" he said.When Wong was ready to go to college, his parents decided to send him back to the U.S., debating between St. Mary's College (a Catholic institution near Lafayette, Calif.) and Pacific Union College. Wong visited both campuses and liked St. Mary's very well. "It was a really nice campus, great tennis courts, cable TV hooked up, meat; you know, it just sounded like a great...

Pacific Union College's music ensembles are presenting "The Bold and Beautiful Music of Brahms," a centennial celebration of the life of Brahms (1833-1897), on Saturday, April 5, in the Pacific Union College Church. The concert begins at 4 p.m., and admission is free.The concert features a number of Brahms' compositions, including his Alto Rhapsody for alto soloist and men's chorus, excerpts from his well-known Requiem, and several shorter works for organ, piano, strings and mixed chorus. Brahms' works will be performed by Pacific Union College's men's chorus, conducted by Assistant Professor of Music Gennevieve Brown-Kibble; the Pacific Union College String Ensemble, conducted by Associate Professor of Music LeRoy Peterson; mezzo-soprano soloist Ellen Cowan, a recent graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; pianists Lynn Wheeler, professor of music, and Helen Chang, a freshman music major; and Professor of Music Del Case on the Pacific Union College Church's Rieger pipe organ....

Tackle the challenging terrain overlooking the Napa Valley on Sunday, April 20, when Pacific Union College hosts its annual mountain bike race, the Napa Valley Dirt Classic.The Dirt Classic's hilly and forested 22 mile race circuit is made up of smooth to medium rough trails, service roads, double track, and single track. The race is sanctioned by the National Off-Road Bicycle Association, and all NORBA rules apply. A one-year racing license is required for those competing in the categories of pro, expert, and sport. These will be available on race day for $35 from NORBA officials. One-day racing licenses will also be sold for $3 on race day for those competing in the beginner class. ANZI-Snell approved helmets are mandatory during race and race day practice. Emergency medical technicians will be present on the course and at the finish line. The first male and the first female finishers will each receive a $100 purse. Prizes for second and third place are $60 and $30, respectively. All participants will receive a race T-shirt....

The community is invited to join Pacific Union College as it celebrates Cultural Diversity Week from May 5-9. This year's celebration features three events: the Spring Festival, a lecture by Judge Don Chairez, and a bilingual musical play by Teatro Milagro.The college's Spring Festival, which takes place from 4-8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, features the multicultural food and entertainment of Pacific Union College's campus clubs. It takes place in the college's Pacific Auditorium, and admission is free. Food can be purchased at the booths set up by the clubs. For more information, call Rita Hoshino at (707) 965-7121.On Thursday, May 8, Judge Don Chairez of the Eighth Judicial District Court will speak in the college's Dauphinee Chapel. The program begins at 9 a.m., and admission is free.The final event of Cultural Diversity Week is a dramatic performance on Friday, May 9, by Teatro Milagro, the Northwest's largest Latino arts and culture organization. Teatro Milagro will perform the bilingual musical play Corazón Gitano at Pacific Union College's Paulin Hall. Corazón Gitano, which means "Gypsy Heart" in English, dramatizes the marginalization of the Spanish gypsies....

Pacific Union College's Napa Valley Musical Theatre is presenting the musical comedy Hello, Dolly! on April 3, 5, 6, and 7 at Lincoln Theater, Veterans' Home of California in Yountville. Performances begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Company in St. Helena and Napa, and they will also be available at the door.Set in early 20th century New York, Hello, Dolly! is a choreographed and fully-orchestrated musical comedy of matchmaking and meddling. Dolly Gallagher Levi, played by junior graphic design major Heather McDonald and by Sarah Takii, is supposed to find a wife for the miserly millionaire Horace Vandergelder, played by senior liberal studies Matthew Payne (who is also the play's producer). But when Dolly decides she wants to marry Vandergelder herself and to persuade him to take his clerk as a partner and allow his niece to marry, things get complicated very rapidly."Besides all of the matchmaking, one of the hidden points of the story is that people should use their money to help young people and society as a whole," said director Mark Phillips, senior communications major. Phillips sees Hello, Dolly! as an opportunity for good fun and entertainment for both students...

Pacific Union College's Symphonic Wind Ensemble will perform its final concert of the school year at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 17, in the college's Paulin Hall. Admission is free.The concert, which includes contemporary masterworks and established standards of wind ensemble literature, takes the audience on a musical tour of four continents. Robert W. Smith's Africa: Ceremony, Song and Ritual is based on the folk music of Western Africa and uses an expanded percussion section. Courtly Airs, written in 1995 by Ron Nelson, is a collection of short pieces in the style of various European countries. The award-winning Las Playas de Rio is a collection of movements, each named after a beach in Rio de Janeiro and each expressing the beauty and flavor of Brazilian music. From North America, John Philip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever will be joined by Percy Grainger's Children's March, a light-hearted exploration of the tune "Over the Hills and Far Away." And finally, the concert's centerpiece, Watchman, Tell Us Of The Night, is not associated with any one continent, but is a tribute to the survivor of child abuse. It portrays the elements of loneliness, loss of innocence, and enduring hope....

Pacific Union College's newest varsity sport has proven to be a swinging success. This year's first-ever men's varsity golf team won the California Pacific Conference division championships at the Bayonet Club in Monterey. Senior physical education major Scott Reed, who helped lead the Pioneers with a score of 82, was also named the 1997 Cal-PAC Golf Player of the Year."It was a great honor," said Reed. "I feel that it was certainly unexpected and a little undeserved." He pointed out that because of the weather, everyone else wasn't shooting very well and he was lucky to shoot so low. "Conditions were pretty crazy. There was wind going everywhere," Reed said.After winning the Cal-PAC division, PUC competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Far West Regional Championships held at the Rancho California course in Temecula.The championships pitted Division I champs Point Loma Nazarene and the runner-up Cal Baptist against Division II champs PUC and their runner-up Dominican College.For the championship game, Reed led the Pioneers once again with an 80 on the first round and an 83 on the second."I think our guys played extremely well, given the kind of competition they faced," said coach Chuck Evans. "We definitely...

Greg Schneider, professor of behavioral science, enjoys celebrating rituals with good food. Every Friday, he prepares braided Jewish challah (pronounced "hala") bread for consumption that evening, when he and his family celebrate the coming of the Sabbath. Their Friday night meal also includes a special grape juice, like Navarro or Sparkling Catawba.Schneider appropriated the Friday night celebration from the orthodox Jewish tradition, where the challah bread is a standard remembrance of the temple service and table of shewbread. "I believe in the importance of ritual and tradition, and I wanted to make this part of a family ritual," he said.Schneider makes two varieties of challah bread: a milk and honey version, favored by his teenage sons, and an orange juice-cranberry version which his wife Candy prefers."The milk and honey bread is easier to make, so things often go the boys' way," said Schneider.Preparing challah bread every week involves a certain dedication, although Schneider is aided in his task by an automatic breadmaker which kneads the dough and lets it rise. "If can use a mechanical toy, men tend to get involved in things," he said. But it's up to Schneider to manually shape and braid the bread, glaze it with...

High mountains are beautiful, challenging, and often dangerous; they also have much to teach us. For 60 years, Dr. Charles Houston has climbed on the world's highest mountains, including K2, Nanda Devi, and Everest. For thirty years he has also been exploring how the body responds to a lack of oxygen, both at great altitude and during illness. Houston has authored or co-authored five books and 100 scientific papers, and he has practiced medicine all his adult life.Houston will speak in Pacific Union College's Dauphinee Auditorium at 7 p.m. Monday, April 14. In this free, illustrated lecture, he will describe some of his pioneering Himalayan climbs and high-altitude research, relating his discoveries to work and recreation at lower altitudes, and to some life threatening illnesses.Dr. Houston's presentation is the first in a series of annual lectures, called "Breakthroughs in Bioscience," to be held at Pacific Union College....

Ken Koyama will lecture about the need for alternative fuels in transportation at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 13, at Pacific Union College. Koyama is program manager for the California Energy Commission's alternative fuel vehicle demonstrations and infrastructure development program. He has general responsibility over methanol, natural gas, and electric vehicle programs and their infrastructure. The California Energy Commission oversees the largest and most diverse fleet of alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure networks in the country.Koyama's lecture is part of Pacific Union College's Joint Sciences Seminar and is the second of a series of seminars on alternative energy vehicles...