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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...