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Tim Gillespie, the campus chaplain at Loma Linda Academy, has been the speaker for this year’s first Week of Prayer at Pacific Union College. The week’s thoughts, summed up in his theme, “The Shallow End of the Pool,” are drawn from Gillespie’s life-long passion for swimming and offer humorous twists to otherwise serious topics like freedom and belonging. While morning sessions retained their typical format, Gillespie utilized an innovative format in the evening meetings in which the audience takes over the microphone and dialogues within itself about the day’s topic. PUC holds one week of prayer near the beginning of each quarter in order to infuse the student body with a sense of spirituality. Morning classes are shortened from fifty to forty minutes in order to accommodate the additional meeting time....

When the 2006 Arizona Teacher of the Year, Lucy Popson met President George W. Bush at the White House in March, she greeted him with the same enthusiasm and excitement that she shows to her third graders each day at Walter Douglas Elementary in Tucson, Arizona. Not one to miss an opportunity, Popson informed the president in a characteristically bubbly tone that her mom was his biggest fan, prompting President Bush to present Popson with a presidential pin for her mother. Popson, part of a 51 member contingent of teachers representing the 50 states and Washington D.C., was being honored at the nation’s capital for her excellence in education. Popson’s journey to the White House began twelve years ago when she graduated from Pacific Union College with a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and a master’s degree in education. She remembers her days in class and says, “They were tough! As a student I was expected to meet high academic standards. I believe that everybody who has ever graduated from PUC deserves a medal!” The third grade classroom at Walter Douglas Elementary has been Popson’s home for the past eleven years. Her energy-packed style of teaching has endeared her to...

Imagine living in a 25-foot trailer, with knowledge that at the end of the year, you’ll have to move out and somehow find a job. Citizens of Waveland, Mississippi have been surviving like this for the past seven months. Since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast last year, 75 percent of the businesses in Waveland, which is located about 30 minutes from New Orleans, have remained closed, and the lingering residents possess little hope for the future. Youth pastor Jon Cicle from the Pacific Union College Church and a group of 16 volunteers journeyed to New Orleans and Waveland during spring break to take part in continued efforts to get the Gulf states back on track. PUC student Jaylene Chung and her parents provided the crew with a nice surprise by unexpectedly joining up with them in Waveland. While most experts are estimating that clearing the devastation and rebuilding will take at least three to five years, the group of PUC students, high school students, and sponsors did their best to make a difference in the lives of some grateful families. From removing broken toilets and appliances to clearing debris washed in from massive flooding, the group worked...