Academics

Fifteen students from Pacific Union College braved the freezing deserts of northern Arizona over Christmas vacation to provide aid to a Navajo community there. This was PUC’s third trip to the community with a student-led ministry called Project Pueblo. “The whole idea for these repeat mission trips is to develop relationships with people in the community,” says Fabio Maia, PUC’s service and missions coordinator. “We’re there to minister to their practical needs.” Initially, the project was intended to focus on repairing and renovating a church that the Adventist group on the reservation had recently purchased with the assistance of one of the largest 13th Sabbath offerings ever given by Adventists in North America. However, when the student group arrived in the reservation town outside of Page, Ariz., they discovered a more immediate need—this winter’s unusually cold weather had frozen the water lines serving the town’s community center. “We had to change our plans and spent two days digging deeper trenches and heating the pipes up to get water,” says Jeremy Lam, one of the student leaders of the group. That meant more than just shoveling dirt—to get to the pipes, the students had to build fires to thaw the frozen...

Pacific Union College celebrated the legacy of the civil rights movement with an address by Cleophus J. LaRue on January 10 at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance installment of the Colloquy Speaker Series. LaRue is the Francis Landey Patton Professor of Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary and is a distinguished scholar of African-American preaching and worship. LaRue began by noting that for many in the audience. “the whole civil rights movement is a distant memory” resulting in “less passion, intensity, emotion, [and] commitment.” “Some of us were younger,” he added. “We remember seeing Dr. King on TV—we remember that time in our country’s history—but for many of you, it is just a distant memory and that’s understandable.” LaRue proposed a new way of experiencing Martin Luther King Jr. Day: “This time, when we celebrate Martin Luther King’s life... should not just be the time when we look back and talk about what was, what happened.” Instead, he said that “it should also be a time when we look forward to the kind of people that we can be when we look at Dr. King’s life and [see] what in Dr. King’s life might [be] worthy of emulation.” He...

In recognition of excellence in "supporting mind, body and spirit" and being a trendsetter in employee wellness, PUC was named one of the "Healthiest Companies in the North Bay" this year. The Healthiest Company awards, announced by the North Bay Business Journal at its annual Health Care Conference in November and in the November 12 issue of its publication, recognize "outstanding efforts of organizations and businesses across the North Bay in the critical movement toward wellness." The award nominations are gathered through the summer and companies are surveyed about their health practices. The Business Journal then selects companies to honor at their Health Care Conference. PUC was cited as earning its award for a thorough and accessible wellness program that includes onsite health screenings, health risk assessments with progress reports, and health education opportunities. Such wellness programs as the "Inertia Initiative" and "Lunch and Learn Series," the Wellness Studio and Health Services Clinic, and classes ranging from the Archibald Fitness Boot Camp to martial arts and Zumba were also mentioned. PUC employees are listed as having 27 percent fewer health risks than the national average. "We work in a faith community that acknowledges our Creator's wisdom in weaving each person...

With the warmth of a family member, Charles White, a pastor and great-grandson of Ellen G. White, drew students closer to their Adventist inheritance at Pacific Union College’s annual Adventist Heritage Colloquy. White is the senior pastor of Camelback Seventh-day Adventist Church in Phoenix, Ariz., and a PUC alum. In “Faith of Our Fathers,” the opening hymn, the audience sang the praises of a Christian inheritance, and the Heritage Singers performed a toe-tapping rendition of “Satisfied.” Afterward, PUC President Dr. Heather Knight introduced White and the accomplishments of his great-grandmother, Adventism’s co-founder and the world’s most translated female author. “Our priority should and always must be on people,” White said, as he shared family stories to create a “sense of connectedness.” “Did you ever meet your great-grandmother?” Charles White is often asked. With a laugh, he said he called upon the reasoning skills of “math majors and nonmajors” to do the calculations: Ellen White passed away in 1915. However, through his stories students had the chance to become better acquainted with members of the White family, such as “Sleeping Willy,” Ellen White’s somnambulance-prone son. “I thought it was very interesting to hear about E.G. White from a family member. Even...

Several times each year, select students from PUC’s math and science departments visit the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. for research and hands-on application of what they’ve learned in the classroom. Between Nov. 15 and 30, a group of six PUC students took a two-week long trip to ORNL. The National Science Foundation, a government organization that promotes the study of science, presented this opportunity and PUC physics professor Vola Andrianarijaona chose each student that attended. April Vassantachart, Kieffer Bacani, Sarah Heczko, Josue Tobar, Richard Strom, and Robert Chi attended this particular trip, reprenting areas of study from biophysics to pre-med to computer engineering. The students were given the chance to participate in different phases of particle research, with assistance from both Andrianarijaona and ORNL scientist Charlie Havener. “The purpose of our trip was to set-up our apparatus, calibrate it, and start making measurements,” said Bacani. This gave students the opportunity to not only learn how these things are done, but to put them into practice. “The trip gave me real lab experience, and put my education to the test,” said Chi. ORNL, founded in the 1940s, has been facilitating scientific discoveries and groundbreaking research for...

Two of the top four awards, including the top group award, in the Lambda Pi Eta division of the National Communication Association convention were awarded to Pacific Union College students this year at the NCA annual event. Three of the students and PUC Communication Professor Tammy McGuire traveled to present their research at the convention.The NCA convention is the single largest annual gathering of communication teachers, researchers, students and other professionals in the nation. Over 5,000 attendees from every state and around the world were present at the convention, held Nov. 15-18 in Orlando, Fla. PUC’s papers were submitted to the division limited to members of the National Communication Association’s official honor society, Lambda Pi Eta.A paper by five PUC students, “Conflict Resolution Patterns in Intercultural Couples,” won the Stephen A. Smith award for the top group paper in the Lambda Pi Eta division following its presentation by PUC Senior Shanna Crumley. The other members of her team, Abraham Baldenegro, Jennifer Cotto, Sean Grainger and Divya Joseph, had already graduated and were unable to attend. The other paper at the convention, was presented by 2012 graduates, Janna Vassantachart and Jordan Thornburg, was titled “Birth Order and Communication Styles in Romantic...

This year Pacific Union College launched a partnership with Brazil Adventist University (UNASP). Discussion began last spring, when UNASP president José Martini suggested the partnership to PUC president Heather Knight, initially with the main objective of UNASP students learning English. “Having more international students on our campuses helps to foster global understanding,” commented Knight. “Being part of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist global church, we want to help other institutions as well, by partnering with them.” With the residence halls open in the summer, PUC offers UNASP students the opportunity to study here at PUC for a five-week program. Students will also take field trips to places like the Bay Area, including San Francisco. “This idea is that they come for a short term, [and gain] language and culture experience, where they have an opportunity to be exposed to American culture and to have some formal language instruction at the same time,” said Assistant Academic Dean Ed Moore. But the partnership is an opportunity for both schools—UNASP will send students to study at PUC while PUC students will have the chance to learn Portuguese and study in Brazil. Knight noted Brazil’s emerging economy, and the especially great opportunities it presents for...

Pacific Union College hosted Rep. Mike Thompson for the Election 2012 installment of the Colloquy Speaker Series Thursday morning, continuing a focus on civic engagement on the campus in the run up to the 2012 General Election.Quoting Dwight Eisenhower who stated that “politics should be the part-time profession of every man,” Thompson urged students to involve themselves in the civic process and the upcoming election. “What happens in politics influences your day-to-day life,” he noted.Thompson noted the many issues at stake in this election that affects students particularly access to affordable, quality education and federal college aid.“I happen to believe education is one of the most important things for the future of our country,” he said. “What you’re learning today, you’re gonna put in practice tomorrow. The future of our country—our economic well-being, our national security, the health of our environment, the sustainability of our country, our principles and our values in part are going to be formed by what you and your colleagues across the country are learning today in schools, and it is so incredibly important.”Following his talk, Thompson fielded a variety of questions from students on a wide range of topics including the Patient Protection and Affordable...

Pacific Union College’sstudent body grew for the fourth consecutive year, fueled largely by a rise inretention--the number of students who return to PUC. This year’s enrollmentincreased to 1,605 from 1,567 at this time last year. The school-wide retentionrate now stands at 78 percent, up from 70 percent last year.Enrollment in PUC’s newallied health program, introduced last year, played the biggest role in fuelingthe increase in retention.PUC administratorsdiscovered the need for such a program after the Western Association of Schoolsand College, the school’s accrediting agency, recommended an institutionalassessment, President Heather J. Knight explained. The assessment revealed agap in degree options for students overflowing the limits of PUC’s popularnursing program, and for students taking pre-allied health classes.The new program fillsthat gap, giving students a degree offering providing a strong foundation for abroad range of careers in the health sciences. “In fall of this year, we had158 students declared for pre-allied health profession,” noted ShanaRuggenberg, chair of the department of nursing and health sciences, saying thedegree helps the department meet its mission of training healthcareprofessionals in allied health fields.In addition to newprograms, students in all majors benefited from a tuition freeze that heldtuition rates for the current school year at 2011-2012 levels, undoubtedlymaking...

Popular Seventh-day Adventist preacher and PUC alumnus José Rojas encouraged students to spend a year of their lives in service abroad when he returned to Pacific Union College to speak at a special event, Tuesday, October 23. An internationally sought-after speaker and bestselling author, Rojas is the director of the office of volunteer ministry for the Adventist Church in North America. The office promotes volunteerism through community projects, missions, and other activities. Citing the biblical call for Christians to be salt in the earth, Rojas drew an analogy between service to others and salt role’s as a catalyst in melting ice. Saying today’s students are part of the most advanced generation in history, he appealed for them to use their abilities to become catalysts for change. “If your mind is that of a catalyst, if you’re out to make this world a better place no matter how many people make fun of you for being an idealist—if you really have a vision for your life—then you can turn this world upside down,” he said. “Go off and be a catalyst around the world for one year of your life.” He urged students to participate in service and mission opportunities while...