2010

It's a June day in Atami, Japan, and a group of students and professors are getting a new lodging experience at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn where they sleep on mats on the floor, wear yukata (casual summer kimonos), and eat traditional food. While memorable, the ryokan experience is just one of many adventures on a ten-day trip introducing these 15 Pacific Union College students and three professors to Japan — modern and traditional — for two classes, an Asian seminar history class and a political science class on U.S. foreign relations. History professors Ileana Douglas and Hilary Elmendorf led the trip and taught the classes, and biology professor Aimee Wyrick went along just for the experience. The students met for several class periods on campus before departing; while on the trip, the learning took place almost entirely on the go, with some meetings or debriefings on buses between tour sites. Each student journaled the experience and chose a topic for a follow-up research paper. They started in Tokyo, exploring three shrines and a blend of modern and traditional culture. Then they visited ancient capitals Kamakura and Kyoto, spent time in a national park where they could view Mt....

Joining tens of thousands of Adventists from around the world in Atlanta, Georgia, Pacific Union College is represented at the 2010 General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Joining scores of other church organizations in the exhibit halls, PUC hosts a booth featuring service projects run by current students and alumni. President Heather J. Knight is one of the PUC administrators and staff representing the college at the session, and she was asked to write a "Voices in the Dome" piece for the Adventist Review, reflecting on a Sabbath service at the session. In the article, she writes, "We saw and experienced the beloved community of Christ, a people in one accord worshipping on the Sabbath day. This was beautiful to see—women and men adorned in their colorful native dress from so many countries around the world, yet there seemed to be no strangers there."...

At the center of academic success at Pacific Union College is the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). The TLC provides students with comprehensive academic support, helping students develop competencies that directly enhance their success in the classroom. Jennifer Wareham Best, TLC director, envisions what is necessary for student success. "My role is multifaceted and has an arm in student persistence, academic support programs, and academic problem-solving," she says. Wareham Best heads a TLC team that offers services such as academic mentoring and advising, group and individual tutoring sessions, and workshops and services catering to frustrated learners and students with learning disabilities. It is Wareham Best’s job not only to devise programs to support her vision to help students succeed, but also to hire people who love students and have a passion for their success to run these programs. “The things I like best about my job,” she says, “are strategic planning for student success and seeing the light come on in students’ eyes when these strategies work for them.” Valerie Yingling, TLC tutoring coordinator, is responsible for hiring and training student tutors who facilitate group study sessions for a wide variety of classes and also work one-on-one with students who...

In a ceremony held at the David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., Debra Winkle, the director of Med Tech/LVN to RN programs for Pacific Union College, was made an Honorary Commander of the 60th Medical Group’s Inpatient Operations Squadron at David Grant USAF Medical Center. Winkle coordinates the nursing program for PUC that allows Licensed Vocational Nurses to complete a degree and become Registered Nurses, and she runs a branch of this program for medical technicians at Travis. It's the only on-base nursing program in the Air Force, and it's given many Med Techs a chance to complete a degree — despite full-time jobs, families, and deployments — which has the potential to move their careers forward, both in and out of the military. So on April 15, when Colonel Lynne Taylor, 60th Inpatient Operations Squadron commander, presented Winkle with the squadron flag and Commander's pin, 60 IPTS personnel gave Winkle a standing ovation. The goal of the Honorary Commander program is to nurture a link between civilian supporters and senior leadership at Travis AFB. According to the program guide, Honorary Commanders can be nominated from a variety of community affiliations to "assure an exchange of...

The usual fair weather and crowds of well-wishers signaled the 2010 commencement weekend, starting on Friday evening, June 11. Graduates, 290 in all, were honored and recognized in various ways throughout the weekend and received 305 degrees on Sunday, June 13. The weekend began with the Friday evening Consecration Service in the church sanctuary, featuring music, a class video, class remembrance, and speaker Bradley Gienger, a religion major of the Class of 2010 who's headed next to Andrews University for his Master of Divinity degree. Gienger also recognized religion professor Jimmy Ha, who passed away from cancer last month, and students Boaz Pak and Chong Shin, who died in 2008 in a car accident and would have been graduating with this class. On Sabbath, a professor and four senior class officers offered "Reflections" for Sabbath School and speaker Jose Rojas presented the sermon at the Baccalaureate Service. Rojas is the Director of the Office of Volunteer Ministries for the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. He's also a musician, author, and preacher and has assisted two United States presidents with domestic policy initiatives for humanitarian leadership. His topic for the sermon was "You are the Salt of the Earth." The...

"Taking Haiti Home," young filmmaker Tim Wolfer's first major production, tells a story from on the ground in a post-earthquake Haitian orphanage called La Maison des Enfants de Dieu. Wolfer was in the middle of the school year as a film and television student at Pacific Union College when the earthquake hit Haiti. Wolfer posted a note on Facebook asking who would sponsor him to go to Haiti… and packed his bags. Now, people often ask him why that was his response. "I honestly don't know," he says. Wolfer had the background for such an adventure, though: He's filmed internationally for humanitarian projects, starting about two years ago when Maranatha Volunteers International, a non-profit that coordinates construction of urgently needed buildings, invited him to do film work in Mozambique. He's also done film work for the Seventh-day Adventist World Church as well as small non-profits, taking him to four countries in Africa, a couple in South America, and Bangladesh. So eight hours later when an anonymous donor funded Wolfer and a friend's flight, it wasn't entirely outside his realm of experience. "All those other experiences helped me build up to this one," Wolfer says. Four days later they were on...

For photographers at all levels, Pacific Union College's summer classes at the Albion Field Station provide a rare opportunity for plein-air photography, complete with family-friendly lodging and dining at the field station. The classes run July 11-23 and are taught by Marlow Burgess and Gilbert Muth, offering one- or two-week sessions with three different "tracks" for different areas or levels of skill. The course can be taken for college credit. Participants in the classes are lodged in the cabins at the field station, and meals are provided at the station cafeteria. To learn more about the sessions and amenities, visit www.puc.edu/albion. To make reservations, call 707-937-5440....

On May 27 at an all-school colloquy program at Pacific Union College, history professor Ileana Douglas was awarded the 2010-2011 Educator of the Year award. Known as the "best mother on campus," Douglas is widely appreciated both for her teaching enthusiasm and her personal interactions with students. "As a colleague you have enriched our department… and you have also opened your heart and home," said history chair Paul McGraw. Douglas earned her B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico and master's degrees from New York University and the Center for Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean and has completed further graduate studies at the University of Valladolid, Spain. She's been an elementary and middle school teacher, college professor, academic department chair, and academic dean and vice president. Each speaker noted Douglas's teaching energy, passion, and positive outlook. "She's so positive it can even seem that sometimes there is only one answer in her classroom… Yes, or yes," said senior history major Jonathan Pichot. "I think the word 'yes' has something to do with the way she lives her life. Yes is a happy word, full of hope. It's an accepting word… An optimistic word." Brittany Kohler, a history...

In a mini political series at Pacific Union College in May, the communication department invited the three candidates running for Napa County District 3 Supervisor to speak on campus during three different lunch hours. District 3 is the region in which the college is located, and candidates and campus people alike have an increased interest in how Angwin plays into local politics following land issues of recent years. Students became interested in meeting the candidates after one, Michael Haley, spoke to professor Michelle Rai's fundraising class about the challenges in political fundraising and organizing a campaign. Rai decided to invite Haley back for a noon hour devoted specifically to his candidacy and issues in Napa County as well as inviting the other two candidates to give their own noon-hour presentations and question-and-answer sessions. "I felt the political series would be valuable because I wanted the campus to have the chance to get to know these candidates on a more personal level than just newspaper articles or promotional mailers," says Rai, who notes that these candidates have a direct relationship to Angwin and the college. "Since the District 3 Supervisor represents Angwin, it seemed only natural that PUC would want to...

Every year, a group of students heads to the State Capitol armed with new knowledge about the legislative project, passionate about a cause, and ready for real-world experience with social justice. Last year's project was geared toward emancipating foster youth in the transition from the child welfare system; this year's focused on forgotten veterans. At the head of this project is social work professor Fiona Bullock, who asks students in her Social Welfare Policy and Contemporary Social Issues class to work on a legislative project focusing on individuals, families, groups, or communities in need. She has them learn about the legislative process a bill passes through in order to present an educational meeting on campus, become familiar with a specific current bill, and take on a worthy causes so they can get first-hand experience with social justice. "It shows the class (and other students from the department) how accessible government is to them and that apathy is NOT acceptable," Bullock says. She also finds that it gives the students a chance to make valuable community connections, "to network with other community agencies and consumers impacted by the legislation and to partnership for change." This year's project was inspired when two...