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Forget the palatial gardens of Paris and the wonders of the Louvre—that is so last year. This year the honors program opted instead for Italian villas and cozy cafés as the site of its annual Summer Term Abroad. The two-week trip to Italy was for the class “Beauty,” a required class for honors students that examines different concepts of beauty within the Western aesthetic tradition, particularly in the visual arts.Previous to its trip to Europe, the honors class met informally to prepare for the class. The students then traveled to many cities and towns throughout Italy to learn on location about artists and writers from Michelangelo and Di Vinci to Aristotle. While the class visited Venice and Rome as well as several coastal towns, the class spent the majority of its time in Florence, Italy, visiting cathedrals and museums like the Santa Maria del Fiore and the Academia.According to professor John McDowell, head of the honors department and trip sponsor, Italy was the perfect place for the students to learn about the history and art of the period they studied. “Florence is a great place for the students to see the shift from the classical models of the Renaissance period...

For the second year in a row, PUC’s Pioneers basketball team has received the “California Pacific Team Sportsmanship Award.” Pioneers coach Robert Castillo received the award for the 2006-2007 season at the California Pacific Conference Convention on August 26. The award is given to the team that displays outstanding sportsmanship and exemplifies the purpose of the “Champions of Character” program that was set up by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes several years ago. The award is voted upon by coaches from the member institutions of the CalPac Conference and is based on character and personalities of the athletes as well as athlete conduct during winning or losing game situations. The Sportsmanship Award tops off what was a truly amazing season for the PUC Pioneers, who made their first appearance in the conference playoffs and played a first-round game in the CalPac men’s tournament against Simpson College. Though the Pioneers lost the game, 85-77, they were graced with the support of their fans who overflowed the stands and were led by one extremely devoted group of PUC students called the “Pioneer Posse.” Receiving the award for a second time is an honor for the PUC athletic department, which has been...

While cramming five Shakespeare plays into three days is enough to have students thinking in iambic pentameter for the rest of the summer, 14 PUC students and alumni found it to be an invigorating experience when they attended the annual Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) this summer in Ashland, Oregon, for PUC’s Shakespeare in Performance class. The class began with a tour backstage so students could get an intimate behind-the-scenes look at all the factors that go into running a repertoire theatre, including scheduling, costuming, set design and direction. The students experienced an afternoon and evening performance each day and in the course of three days students attended performances of “The Tempest,” “As You Like It,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “Tartuffe,” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Between plays, students participated in seminar discussions in which they both prepared for and reacted to each of the plays. As if that wasn’t enough, students also saw a “Prologue” that was prepared by the OSF. Later, they met and conversed with the actress who played Ariel in “The Tempest,” who gave the students insight into her particular role and her experiences as an actor. During down time, students explored the town of Ashland, which...

For the second year in a row the St. Helena Star was named one of the state’s best newspapers by the California Newspaper Publisher Association. According to the paper’s editor, this year’s win was due in large part to the reporting skills of PUC alum Jesse Duarte. In an article entitled “Star Again Honored for Excellence,” St. Helena Star staff writer David Stoneberg details the awards and specifically credits Duarte for the Star’s success. Also, Stoneberg quotes publisher Doug Ernst as saying that Duarte’s article in the December 28 edition was ‘insightful’ and that “Jesse tracked down the story and did a wonderful reporting job.” The newspaper received several awards for its stories of news events in 2006 in a competition in which there were about 300 daily and weekly newspapers entered. Among the awards received was an award for general excellence for a weekly paper with circulation under 4,300. The Star received the General Excellence award for the December 14, 21 and 28 editions. Featured on the front pages of the winning editions were a piece about the lack of flood funding in St. Helena, coverage of a trial in which a judge ruled against Peter Mennen in a...

For the fourteenth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named Pacific Union College as among the best educational institutions in the country. PUC ranked 14 in the top tier for Comprehensive Colleges–Bachelor’s, western region, in the 2008 “America’s Best Colleges” issue. The category is for institutions that focus on undergraduate education and offer a range of degree programs. High scores are based on peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving. Aspects of PUC that contribute to its high score include its proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students, a high percent of faculty who are full time, alumni giving, and solid freshman retention rates. "“It is always a pleasure when others recognize PUC’s academic excellence,” said Nancy Lecourt, vice president for academic administration and academic dean. “We cannot help but be pleased that the quality Christian liberal arts education we offer here will be more widely known, and more students and parents will become aware of the great value PUC really represents. The steadiness of our standings—fourteen years without a break—is also a statement about our commitment to teaching and learning.”...