Search - Chris Togami

For the first time in the 23 years he’s taught at Pacific Union College, communication professor James Chase skipped this year’s graduation. It wasn’t so he could spend Father’s Day at home watching golf on TV, though PUC’s graduation usually falls on the final day of the U.S. Open—no, he was away in Pennsylvania, attending the U.S. Open in person to film a special segment with golf legend Arnold Palmer. The event was a result of Chase’s work on a portrait of Palmer, which has been selected as the centerpiece and focal point of the Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History at the USGA’s museum in New York. Hundreds of portraits of Palmer have been created during the golfer’s celebrated career, but none have taken on the magnitude or unique composition of Chase’s “Gratitude,” a portrait created entirely out of words. Ranging from the hundreds of awards and accomplishments that Palmer has received during his career to Palmer’s wife’s name, the 22,719 words, which vary in size from 1/10th to 1/16th of an inch, represent story lines drawn from Palmer’s gracious and compassionate life. Chase explains, “I wanted the content to become the form—to turn Arnie’s story lines into Arnie’s...

The Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation has made a $60,000 grant to Pacific Union College to fund student scholarships and a capital campaign readiness effort for the college. Richard L. Stack is trustee of the foundation, which was started in 1987 by Hazel Darling after the death of her husband, Hugh. Stack visited PUC in May and expressed an interest in helping the College fulfill its mission to provide Christian education in California. The Darling Foundation has funded major projects such as the UCLA law library and the law library at USC, Hugh Darling’s alma mater. Darling was also known for his service as a city councilman and mayor of Beverly Hills. “We appreciate the commitment of The Darling Foundation, which will make it possible for several students to attend PUC over the next two years who would not otherwise be able to attend,” PUC President Richard Osborn says of the gift. “The Foundation’s investment will also help PUC prepare for a capital campaign to expand and renovate our library, which will become the major learning center on campus.”...

The 325 graduates of the Pacific Union College Class of 2007 celebrated the conclusion of their undergraduate education during the weekend of June 15-17. The full schedule of programs and ceremonies included addresses from Roy Ice, PUC chaplain; Don Schneider, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America; Kristie Brandt, director of the Parent-Infant & Child Institute; and Julius Nam, assistant professor at the Loma Linda University School of Religion. Sunday morning’s commencement ceremonies found Commencement Grove lined with chairs and festive with leis, balloons, billowing black or white robes, and the traditional corn tortillas that graduates toss as an expression of their ebullience. Nam, a former member of PUC’s religion department, spoke to the graduates about dreams. “PUC has taught you to have dreams that are bigger than yourselves,” he said. He challenged them to choose a cause, a mission to serve their communities, citing several alumni who have made significant contributions through their vision and creativity. “The God who holds the universe asks you to partner with him in dreaming,” he said. “You PUC graduates have to be champions, have to be leaders.” Academic Dean Nancy Lecourt and President Richard Osborn then conferred 339 degrees, with the...

For the first time, PUC held its annual Senior Film Festival at the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena. Both of the June 3 screenings, which featured five short films written and produced by seniors in the film and television program of the visual arts department, were filled to capacity. Use of the local movie theater as this year’s venue allowed the students to showcase their work to a broader audience. Stephen Eyer, instructor in film and television, was excited about the festival’s turnout. “There is something magical about experiencing movies together as a community,” said Eyer. “It was great to see students, faculty, and staff from the college, as well as many local community members coming together to enjoy these stories.” Also on display was the program’s new 20-foot mobile production trailer, the brainchild of festival producer and senior film and television major J.R. Rogers. The trailer, outfitted with all the equipment necessary to perform multi-camera and off-campus shoots, was open to the public for tours. “People were amazed and astounded at what PUC has done with the film program and with the trailer,” said Rogers referring to the trailer as well as the numerous awards that student films have...

Film and television majors of the visual arts department of Pacific Union College will present four short films at the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena on the evening of Sunday, June 3. Seating is limited for the two showings at 6 and 8 p.m. and admission is free. The festival will feature the award winning film, “Three Courses,” which won the Best of Fest award for the 2007 SONscreen Film Festival, a destination for established and up-and-coming Christian filmmakers to share their creative work, gain exposure, and network with other media and film professionals. Three Courses is the story of three different couples who find, lose and re-establish love over the course of dinner in an elegant restaurant. It is not only a love story dedicated to the different paths that relationships take, but is also a love letter to the art and food culture and the role that it plays in the most important moments of our lives. Other films include “Shallow End,” “Thunder & Lightning” and “Journey of Healers.” The visual arts department of Pacific Union College offers majors in fine art, photography, graphic design, and film and television, and minors in art history and fine art. It...

When film and television major J.R. Rogers graduates from Pacific Union College this June, he will leave behind a mark that anyone in the 125-year history of the college would be proud of. In addition to his senior project of producing the video version of the three weeks of prayer this year, which he anticipates will soon be broadcast to millions via the Loma Linda Broadcasting Network, Rogers has begun developing several projects that will allow the growing visual arts department to continue offering top-level opportunities to its students. Rogers has been both in and around the field of broadcast production for nearly 13 years. He is responsible for obtaining program information for each week-of-prayer, transferring that information into an appropriate film script, organizing the crew and making sure that the film aspect of each program runs smoothly and on time. “I decided to make my senior project work around my abilities,” says the Southern California native. “Most seniors shoot a film or a documentary. That’s not something that I’m good at, so I decided to make my project something that I could do and do well.” Something else that Rogers does well is follow his visions. With the help...

Lisa M. Beardsley spoke about the question, “Why did God Create Satan” for this year’s biennial Heubach Lecture. Beardsley, the associate director of education and executive secretary of the Adventist Accrediting Association for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, explored the intriguing realm of human choice and numerous related issues. Beardsley’s topic, a question that both children and adults have pondered throughout history, focused heavily on the connection between free choice, love and happiness, a relationship that she summed up in the statement, “Happiness is love freely given and freely received.” Beardsley’s travels throughout the world have allowed her to witness atrocities in places like Rwanda, where choice is the privilege of a few, exercised on the lives of many. Beardsley is the first female lecturer in the history of the Heubach Lectureship Series, which began in 1998 when PUC established an endowment in honor of Paul C. Heubach. The lectureship, which is funded by friends of Heubach, hopes to examine the great central truths of Christianity in light of the character of God by using simple language—“in terms understood where people live.” The goal for each lecture is to leave the listener with a clearer comprehension of God, and...

Husbands, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends. These are only some of the people lost to cancer on a daily basis. By the time you have finished reading this paragraph, another person in the United States will have died from cancer, the most common forms of which are prostate and breast. Statistically speaking, everyone has been or will be touched by the destructive and prevalent disease, a disease that invades our lives and our bodies yet remains without a cure. While the world continues its search for a cure, a great deal of research has moved towards the preventative aspect. Dr. Brian Wong, a biology professor new to PUC this academic year, has been researching and testing various methods of cancer prevention during the past sixteen years. Since his doctoral dissertation in 1990, Wong has researched the effectiveness of Chinese herbs in combating, or at least slowing, the growth of cancer cells. Two of these herbs, which have shown promising lab results, are found commonly throughout China in roadside ditches. Testing performed on mice has yielded delayed cancer cell growth of up to five or six weeks when taking certain levels and combinations of the herbs, which is the equivalent of about...

The annual Fall Festival was held in PUC’s Pacific Auditorium on Sunday, November 5. The Asian Student Association, business club, French club, Polynesian club and many others took part in the event which raised funds for the respective clubs and provided students with the opportunity to sample ethnic cuisine from various regions of the world as well as enjoy other non-gastronomic forms of entertainment. One of the largest attractions of the festival was the “Islands of Polynesia” show, presented several times throughout the night by the Polynesian club. Cultural dances of Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, Hawai’i and New Zealand were performed by student-members of the club who graciously offered dancing instruction to several members of the crowd during each show. Also present for the afternoon and evening festivities were approximately 350 high school seniors from 16 academies in California and Hawaii. The prospective students were invited to PUC for the weekend and given the opportunity to experience the spiritual, academic and social activities that the campus offers. Tyler Len, a senior from Hawaiian Mission Academy and the brother of junior aviation major Chris Len, particularly enjoyed the Polynesian club’s show. “It was really well done. Everybody looked like they were having...

Pacific Union College’s annual Phonathon kicked off on October 9 and will run for five evenings a week until December 7. A total of 34 students are staffing the phones in order to reach this year’s goal of $165,000, an amount that will be allocated to scholarships, residence hall renovation, and faculty development through PUC’s annual fund. The generous support from alumni has Phonathon on track to meet its goal, and Tonya Kamaloni of the alumni and advancement office is confident of the program’s success. “We have been receiving a steady number of gifts each evening and are optimistic that this generosity will continue over the next seven weeks so we can reach our goal of $165,000,” says Kamaloni. Phonathon was originally supported by faculty and staff volunteers. Twenty phone lines were set up in the side rooms of the cafeteria where the first Phonathon workers made their calls. Now entering its 31st year, Phonathon employs nearly twice the number of callers and has become a student-driven affair, a characteristic unique to the college’s fundraising campaigns, and one that provides the students with an opportunity to directly contribute to supporting PUC and its future....