Search - Becky St. Clair

Pacific Union College announces Dr. Ron Graybill as the speaker for the 2019 lecture of the Percy and John Christian Civil Rights Conference Center. Graybill has served his communities in a variety of ways over the years—professor, journalist, communications specialist, historian, editor, and pastor—and will draw from these varied experiences as he presents on his topic, “James Edson White: Flawed Hero.” The lecture will take place on Saturday, March 9, at 4 p.m. in PUC’s Paulin Hall. This event is free and open to the public.“I’ll be presenting on the paternalistic racism which characterized most social action by whites during the late 19th century,” Graybill explains. “To do this I will be examining closely the story of the life of James Edson White, with emphasis on his pioneer evangelistic, educational, and humanitarian work among Mississippi Blacks during this era.”Much of his lecture will be an elaboration of the premise of his book, Mission to Black America, originally published in 1971 with a second, updated edition released in February 2019. “James Edson White’s evangelism story has significant application to current issues,” Graybill says. “We are in an era when the long-standing racism of much of American society has come more obviously...

The faculty of the department of visual arts at Pacific Union College invites the community to the opening reception of their 2019 faculty art show in the Rasmussen Art Gallery on the PUC campus in Angwin. The reception begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, and is free and open to the public. The art will be available for viewing through March 17. Faculty with art in this year’s show are: Amy Cronk (mixed media); Cheryl Daley (ceramics); Jayme de la Torre (sculptural assemblage); Brian Kyle (photography); Milbert Mariano (design); Bob Pappas (ceramics); Cliff Rusch (photography); Tom Turner (watercolors).“We are a department filled with diverse faculty, specializing in different disciplines, who make the student experience at PUC one of a kind,” says Rajeev Sigamoney, department chair and associate professor of film and television production. “Coming to the faculty show allows students to get to know our faculty better, as well as exposing both them and the community to what we’re all about here in the department of visual arts.”This 2019 event is the 25th annual faculty art show, highlighting the diverse talent and experience of those who shape the experiences of the next generation of artists.“Faculty in visual arts...

A previously undocumented letter penned by Ellen G. White, co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, has been discovered in the archives at Pacific Union College. Last week, several scholars reviewed the letter and confirmed the incomplete document was indeed in Ellen White’s handwriting. “Judging from the scholarly stir that followed, I would say that is a significant historical find,” says Katharine Van Arsdale, PUC’s official archivist and the document’s discoverer.Four years ago, Van Arsdale found what appeared to be a letter from Ellen G. White in a small metal cabinet designed to store maps. She noted the letter, dated May 9, 1882--one month after PUC began officially holding classes--was incomplete and lacked a signature, although someone had written in pencil the author was Mrs. White.“I regularly took that letter with me into classes as one of several artifacts illustrating the history of PUC and the stores of its archives,” Van Arsdale says. “I would show it to the students as something ‘probably’ written by Ellen White.”Last week, Van Arsdale presented to a class of freshmen for James Wibberding, associate professor of applied theology and biblical studies. During the class, she asked Wibberding if he happened to know, from the course...

In late January 2019, several PUC classes assisted local agencies with a government-required Point In Time (PIT) count of the homeless in Clearlake, California. Students in Human Behavior in the Social Environment developed their basic client assessment skills; those in Program Evaluation conducted research on an existing community program; and students in Statistical Methods studied how statistics can provide insight into local communities and play a role in securing and directing resources. The Principles of Counseling class was invited to take part for hands-on experience.“Research shows when we take classroom skills and bring them into real world experiences, our students, college, and community all benefit,” says Christy Mantz, instructor of social work and service-learning coordinator. “Students are able to see a need first-hand, utilize critical thinking skills to solve community or agency problems, and then act using theories they’ve learned in the classroom to address the community issues.”According to Mantz, in 2018, Lake County reported 615 homeless persons to Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the federal entity which requires the PIT count. Of those 615, 591 were unsheltered due to a lack of emergency or temporary shelter in Lake County.As the students surveyed people experiencing homelessness, Mantz says they heard...

Pacific Union College’s Vox Pro Musica, directed by Jenelle Westerbeck Anderson, and Orchestra, directed by Rachelle Berthelsen Davis, embarks on their winter tour to Southern California next week. All events are free and open to the public.Anderson will lead Vox Pro Musica in several pieces, including William Dawson’s famous Ain’a That Good News! and a Moses Hogan spiritual, We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace. Additionally, the choir will sing Durufle’s Ubi Caritas. The latter’s text reads:"Where there is charity and love, God is there. The love of Christ has gathered us together, Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Let us revere and love the living God. And from a sincere heart let us love one another."“This is a beautiful a capella motet based on medieval chant,” explains Anderson, “with a text that reflects the overarching theme of all the choir's sacred music this year: Peace and Community.”Orchestra, led by Davis, will perform Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 featuring soloist Nathan Kim on the piano. Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos in G minor highlights soloists Aaron Baluyot and Andrew Caster. They will also perform works by Bach and Telemann, as well as several hymn arrangements.Performances...

PUC and PG&E announce a partnership as another step in making the college and all of the Angwin community safer, with a project creating what is called a Resilience Zone.“In the aftermath of the Santa Rosa, Tubbs, and Atlas Peak fires of 2017, PG&E was looking for ways to quickly but safely provide power to areas in which power was cut due to fire risks,” explains Brandon Parker, VP for financial administration at PUC. “The Resilience Zone project will deploy pre-installed distribution equipment that can safely facilitate the provision of temporary power during emergencies.”The pre-installed interconnection hubs (PIH) will provide a “plug and play” infrastructure enabling PG&E to connect temporary generation to the distribution grid at predetermined locations. PIH consist of a transformer and associated interconnection equipment, ground grid, and grid isolation and protection devices. Pre-installing this equipment will significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to connect temporary generation to the grid.“Angwin was selected as an ideal location for a Resilience Zone because it is within a High Fire Threat District, as defined by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC),” Parker continues. “As part of PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program, they are implementing additional precautionary measures to help...

Aren Rennacker is currently the youth and college pastor at the Calimesa Seventh-day Adventist Church. After graduating in 2007 from Sacramento Adventist Academy, Aren went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in PR and journalism from PUC in 2011, then his master’s in theological studies from La Sierra University in 2017.One of four kids, Aren has myriad stories from his childhood, during which he dreamed of winning a spot on an NBA team.He will be speaking during PUC’s Winter Revival, Jan. 22-25, and his theme is “Authentic.” We caught up with Aren so we could all get to know him a little better (how did he go from basketball star to youth pastor?) as we prepare to receive his insights on authenticity and God next week.Read the full Q&A with Aren on our blog....

In the early decades of the 20th century, a baby girl was born to German parents in Ukraine. In 1957, that baby girl, now grown, immigrated with her family to the U.S. from Germany. In 2014, her granddaughter, Erika Weidemann, graduated from Pacific Union College with a degree in history, and has since won a number of grants, fellowships, and awards for her research on German-American history.For her dissertation, titled "A Malleable Identity: The Immigration of Ethnic Germans to North America, 1947-1957,” Weidemann received research grants from the Glassock Center for the Humanities, the Society for German American Studies, and Texas A&M University. These competitive grants ranged from $500 to $5,000 and were awarded for the significance of her research topic.Weidemann also won the Keeble Dissertation Award, given to the best dissertation project in the history department at Texas A&M, the German Script Award from the Quadrangle Historical Research Foundation for her work with German primary sources, and the Fasken Research Award, given to those who combine excellent research with a passion for teaching.“The family connection got me interested in the topic at first,” Weidemann says, “but the research has become more fascinating the longer I study it.”Weidemann first began...

The Rasmussen Art Gallery on the campus of Pacific Union College will host the opening reception for an art show by guest artist Diana Majumdar on Saturday, Jan. 12, from 7-9 p.m. Majumdar’s work will remain on display in the gallery through Feb. 10.Majumdar works primarily with encaustic painting, which utilizes beeswax with damar resin mixed in for elasticity.“While it is melted, the wax can be applied with brushes, one brushstroke at a time, like you would with regular paint,” Majumdar explains. “Except wax begins to harden the second it leaves the hot plate, so I have to work fast.”Though she graduated with a BFA in drawing and painting from Academy of Art University in San Francisco, art was never Majumdar’s career goal.“It was actually my dad’s dream to be an artist,” she says. “His parents insisted he pursue a ‘useful’ profession, so he became an auto mechanic, but we often watched him draw or use watercolors casually at home.”Years later, Majdumar recalls, both she and her sister took an entrance exam to an art school in Estonia—the only way to study art with proper instruction.“Both of us failed,” she says, “but only our dad was devastated.”Passing would have meant...

Many people have created movie adaptations of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre; there’s even a musical based on the Victorian novel. But few—if any—have attempted to capture their interpretation of the well-read romance on piano.Until now.Laurel Kwon, senior English major and Honors student at Pacific Union College, recently completed her final Honors project, for which she translated her understanding of Jane Eyre into a ten-minute piano composition.“It was more difficult than I thought to write music based on a plot that’s already been written,” she admits. “I usually tend to just improvise and create a melody out of that, but it was actually quite fun to take on the challenge.”Kwon has been playing piano since the age of five, and has grown up creating and composing at the keyboard whenever could. When she took “Victorian Literature in Britain” last year, Kwon felt compelled to delve more into Jane Eyre, crediting her professor, Dr. Linda Gill, with her interest, saying Dr. Gill “can transform boring rocks into blooming, fragrant flowers in her classes.”As she contemplated her senior thesis, Kwon hit upon a unique idea: “I thought it would be fun to connect my English major side with my musical side,” she says....