Search - Lainey S. Cronk

Pacific Union College’s Rasmussen Art Gallery presents “Gesture and My World” from November 1 to December 7. The show will exhibit the artwork of Martha Mason, a PUC alumna who is currently teaching at Walla Walla College in Washington. “Gesture and My Word” will consist predominantly of Mason’s very recent work in acrylic and mixed media painting. Mason works spontaneously and directly, looking for “interrelationships, fast moving energy flow, and breaks in space.” The energy and texture that develop in her paintings lead to what the artist calls “atmosphere charged with feeling.” One of the things Mason has been working on is a series of “portraits” — works that are about individuals, but not based on actual models. Mason says she is “trying to take [portraiture] away from likeness but find a spot where a quality of personality is found amidst the paint.” Several of these works will be included in the Rasmussen show....

Pacific Union College will be featuring a unique, one-day women’s workshop called THRiVE! Pursuing Purposeful Relationships, on November 15. PUC’s Dauphinee Chapel will serve as one of the satellite sites for this live simulcast, which is hosted by Injoy and Today’s Christian Woman magazine and features eight dynamic speakers. The goal of the program is to help women deepen their purpose, extend their influence, and inspire those around them. Individuals who attend the THRiVE! Simulcast will be treated to inspiring messages from Kay Arthur, Stormie Omartian, Jill Briscoe, Michelle McKinney Hammond, Florence Littauer, Delilah, Gary Smalley and John C. Maxwell, with a worship feature by Crystal Lewis. ...

PUC’S RIGHT BRAIN Art and Music on the Hill By Lainey S. Cronk Through the double wooden doors of the Paulin Hall choir room seep rich waves of harmony, in patchwork pieces—three measures of tenor and bass, a phrase repeated four times by sopranos, and a page of weaving notes. Above the gray carpet stretching past the practice rooms, layers of music fade into each other. A piano jazzes up “Amazing Grace.” A flute flies over scales. A voice and a guitar mingle like rain in a river. There’s plenty of formal music around campus—concerts, recitals, choirs …but at the heart, many of us just love music, and that love shows up in all kinds of ways, including less formal means of expression. The Stage is Open For those with strong voices and stout hearts, there are plenty of places for up-front student involvement and leadership in music. Every Sabbath, PUC church’s worship pastor coordinates a group of vocalists and musicians to lead out in the worship portion of the church service. Each week, the group consists almost entirely of PUC students. Students also organize and lead out in the music for every vespers and collegiate Sabbath school, in addition...

When wildfires recently raged in Southern California, and Napa County firefighters began forming Strike Teams to lend their assistance, the students at PUC did not go untouched by the events. Eight Angwin volunteer firefighters, three of whom were PUC students, and two Angwin fire engines joined Napa County strike teams from Calistoga and St. Helena. Jon Huff, a junior at PUC, went with the Strike Team led by Gary Kraus, chief of the Calistoga Fire Department, and was assigned to the Julian Fire northeast of San Diego. Leo Lutz, senior, and Brandon Craig, sophomore, went to the Old Fire above San Bernardino. Cassaundra Lutz didn't get much warning about her husband, Leo's, departure for the Old Fire. "He drove by in the fire engine and waved," Cassaundra says. A friend dropped off the Lutz' vehicle and said, "Leo's on his way to San Bernardino." Not only was the experience rather unexpected, it was also very new for some of the participants. PUC student Brandon Craig hadn't had much fire experience before he went down south with Engine 18; besides his training, he had only been on two fire calls. Fighting the San Bernardino fire was intense. "We worked from Sunday...

“Safe Surrender,” the 2006 documentary film produced by PUC film and television majors Brian Bazemore and Jackson Boren, has been making its way to hundreds of thousands of viewers across the country, and now earns further recognition with a platinum Ava Award. Bazemore and Boren filmed, directed and edited the documentary for the San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, California, about the Safely Surrendered Baby Law. The law, which allows parents to anonymously and legally give a newborn to a hospital, police or fire station within 72 hours of the baby’s birth, has been in place since 2001, but needed to be brought to public awareness. The film debuted on October 11, 2006, to an audience of more than 200 distinguished educators, public officials, and law enforcement officers. Since then, the hospital has been working to distribute the film both locally and across the nation. In addition to submitting the project for various awards programs, they gave 150 DVDs to health-care participants in the 10th annual state Emergency Medical Services for Children conference, provided all the school nurses in the county with copies, and have made the DVD available to all area schools. Over 1,000 copies have been distributed in...

“The purpose of my speech is to inform you of the secret ingredient in beer. A secret ingredient not found in the recipe or labels; what is that secret ingredient?” Pacific Union College student Andre Sanchez leans into the words as he clearly articulates for the gathered audience and judges the down sides of drinking. “That secret ingredient is…. stupidity.” Despite his charismatic presentation, Sanchez is not a professional speaker: He’s a junior communication major at Pacific Union College, and he is participating in the regional round of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union intercollegiate oratorical contest, held at Pacific Union College in May. Sanchez’s compelling speech won him the regional round of the competition. It also won him a chance to present his speech for the final round in September. The WCTU was organized in 1874 by women concerned about the problems alcohol caused families and society. The college oratorical contests started taking place in the 1950s. Now, regional contests select winners who eventually may go on to the annual world and national WCTU convention, which this year takes place in Indianapolis. Sanchez got involved with the program when he took communication professor James Chase’s pursuasive communication class. Every year...

This fall, Pacific Union College is launching a brand-new program that incorporates students’ desire to serve their communities with a demand for trained emergency personnel. The nationwide growing awareness of the need for more people to be trained in mitigating emergencies and large-scale disasters has been felt at PUC in a very tangible, local way. “Our local emergency services agencies, such as fire department and ambulance companies, are made up of a number of students,” explains James Robertson, a firefighter, EMT, and CPR instructor and physics professor who will head up the new program. The volunteer fire department, he adds, is over 50 percent students. “So there is an interest in the part of our current students to have emergency services as part of a program.” The new Emergency Services Program, which now offers an associate of science degree, is part of a larger picture at the college. “PUC has a reputation and a long history of providing medical training, whether it’s in the nursing department or with pre-medical students, and we do a good job of that,” Robertson says. “So it’s a natural extension of that training.” The program focuses on domestic emergency services, preparing students to work with...

Following a riveting presentation on the human rights violations of prisoners in Guinea Conakry, Pacific Union College students, faculty, and staff donated $18,745 to aid a prisoner advocacy program. Kim Osborn, a young social activist who graduated from PUC in 2004, spoke to the campus in March about her past work in the western African country and her decision to return after hearing reports about further violations in the prison system. According to Osborn, the International Committee for the Red Cross recently stated that about 27 percent of the 800 men, most of who have been illegally detained, are severely malnourished. “If things continue at the rate they are going, one in ten men entering this prison this year will die because of starvation,” said Osborn, who helped to establish the prisoner advocacy program in Guinea Conakry. She encouraged the college to give donations to go towards medical aid and for court processing fees. It costs $50 to hospitalize a malnourished prisoner and save their life and only $15 to put someone through the court system so that they can be released. “If everyone here donated the amount that you spend on one Guigni’s sandwich, think of the amazing thing...

Four Pacific Union College students came away from the annual SONscreen Film Festival in Simi Valley, Calif., April 12-14 with top awards for their films. Uly Mostrales, Brian Bazemore, TJ Gleason, and J.R. Rogers won Best Music Video, Best Drama, Best Documentary, and Best of the Fest (grand prize), respectively. The grand prize film, titled “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 in our lives. “Three Courses” was the work of PUC film and television students; Rogers, the producer, worked with director/writer Eryck Chairez, production manager and editor Brian Bazemore, and art director/writer Jackson Boren to create the film. The SONscreen Film Festival is 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. Since the festival debuted in 2002, a number of PUC students have received prizes for their dramas, public...

The first all-school colloquy of winter quarter was held in the church on January 11 and was a special service commemorating the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. Students provided a reading of Langston Hughes’ piece “Democracy” and special music from the Gospel Choir. The guest speaker for the program was Ronald Pollard, Greater Los Angeles youth director for the Southern California Conference and founder of Heritage Missions, a short-term missions program that targets urban SDA youth who attend public schools and encourages them to be socially responsible citizens through global mission service. In his presentation, Pollard took a look at King’s life, following the story of his childhood, family, education, and civil rights leadership. Talking about King’s willingness to die for what he believed in, Pollard recounted how his mother had worked endlessly as a single mother to allow her children to be what they dreamed of. “If [King] could die for what he believed, I can live for it,” she would say. To students, Pollard said, “The challenge is that you will say ‘My life is bigger than just me.’” Pollard remained on campus to speak for the vespers program on Friday as well....