News

Every graduating class has the opportunity to leave a legacy and make an impact through their senior class gift. PUC’s Class of 2022 decided they wanted the impact of their gift to be felt by the local community through a generous donation to the Angwin Food Pantry.“The class decided to give back to the community for all that they do in support of the college,” said Professor Tuwan Ussery, associate professor of social work and 2022 class sponsor. “Additionally, many of the class officers saw firsthand the need in the community through the Angwin Food Pantry and they wanted to serve community residents.”The pantry serves anyone in the area who is facing food insecurity, and the class’s donation comes at a critical time as rising food costs are causing more people to look for support. The pantry has seen a recent increase in the number of individuals and families picking up fresh produce, canned food, and other household staples at the pantry’s regular distributions at the PUC Church. “While we can’t quantify the depth and breadth that this gift will have on the community,” said Milbert Mariano, PUC’s vice president of academic administration and academic dean. “It’s the right thing...

The night before his country was invaded, Andrey Gulko went to bed early.He and his family had returned from a business trip to the Netherlands. Back to their house with their own dishes, towels, and comfortable beds. Back to the daily routine. Back to their normal life.With three children under 10, normal life for the Gulkos was busy. They barely had time to recoup after their trip. Two days went by. It was a Wednesday and they still hadn’t unpacked.The first time he awoke was to the phone ringing. It was his neighbor, anxious and worried about the tense situation with Russia.Still groggy, Andrey put his neighbor off until the morning. There had been rumors for months, but nothing had happened yet. Andrey hung up. He closed his eyes and once again let the waves of weariness pull him back into sleep.The second time he was jolted awake by the sound of loud blasts and rattling windows. It was 4 AM. Andrey and his wife looked at each other. It was actually happening.It was happening now.In the Midst of an International CrisisAndrey and his family, along with millions of other Ukrainians, suddenly found themselves at the center of a crisis...

Students in this year’s graduating class didn’t just successfully triumph through several years of study sessions, papers, and exams. They also have the distinction of making it through a global pandemic and the threat of last year’s wildfire. The uncertainty of these events posed challenges. But they also stimulated creativity, shaped priorities, and above all fostered perseverance. Those experiences and the lessons learned from them are as indelible in the minds of the students as all of their teachers, classes, friendships, and social events. Pacific Union College’s 2022 graduates are ready now to go out and make a positive and lasting impact on the world. On Sunday, June 19, 2022, PUC celebrated its 120th graduating class at a joyous commencement ceremony. The college conferred associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees upon nearly 200 students. Diverse in its make-up, the class represents students from 13 states and five countries. Three honors students and three Maxwell Scholars were also recognized among the graduates. “Choose to live boldly and take risks,” PUC Board of Trustees chair Sandra Roberts said in her Commencement address. “Choose to be resilient. Choose to allow love to emerge. Hope to emerge.”Unique to the Class of 2022 is that it...

Additional spots will increase admittance availability for students, financially benefit university, and medically benefit the local community and beyondPacific Union College is expanding its Associate Degree in Nursing (ASN) on-campus program availability with nine additional student spots each quarter eventually totaling up to 108 new nurses added to the workforce every year. The ability to increase admittance availability to the program will allow more students the opportunity to pursue nursing, while combating the nursing shortage in the community and statewide.On average, 200 qualified students apply to the ASN program, however, with the previous spot availability, the department could only admit 81 students each year. The addition of nine spots per quarter expands that 81-spot availability to 108 total annually. PUC’s chair of the Nursing and Health Science Department Kimberly Dunker, DNP, MSN, RN, CNE, CNEcl, says every additional spot was hard fought.“Nursing programs are highly regulated by the California Board of Registered Nursing (CBRN),” Dunker says. “In order to increase the number of spots, the department had to demonstrate their adequate resources, including faculty, clinical placements, and labs to ensure the university could provide education for the additional students. This application took us six months to receive board approval.”Additionally, the...

The California Board of Registered Nursing in May gave Pacific Union College’s nursing program five-year approval, further cementing the college as one of Northern California’s top places to study nursing.In addition to meeting the requirements of WASC and other organizations, Pacific Union College’s nursing department must continually renew and be approved regularly. The BRN conducts a standard evaluation and visit of the program every five years with 2022 being the most recent.Nurse education consultants visited PUC and met with the department’s faculty and staff, student support services and administration. The formal evaluation took two days. However, preparation for the assessment took months. Kimberly Dunker, director and chair of Nursing Health and Sciences, said that because the college must continually renew, preparation for evaluation is ongoing and it involves everybody in the department. Dunker, along with Assistant Directors Debbie Wallace and Susan Bussell, prepared the self-study, which thoroughly and critically examined PUC’s entire nursing program to identify its strengths and deficiencies. It also involved planning for modifications and improvements, if necessary. In addition to clinical sites and facilities, individual faculty members and directors must be approved by the BRN in order to teach theory, clinical and lab courses, Dunker said. Faculty...

PUC’s new Paramedic to RN program has received full approval and is ready for its first cohort to begin in Fall 2022. The program is one of only a few of its kind in the state of California and will enable students with a paramedic background to continue their education and become registered nurses (RN). The program was presented to the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) during an onsite campus visit during April and granted official approval on May 17. Classes and labs for the Paramedic to RN path will be held at the college’s satellite campus in nearby Napa, California, which makes the program more accessible for commuting students. The new program also follows a non-traditional format built to accommodates busy professionals, following the successful model of PUC’s existing licensed vocational nurse (LVN) to RN program.“Classroom instruction is taught in ‘core weeks’ where students come to class Sunday to Wednesday for eight-hour days every six weeks, and 12-hour clinicals are held on Sundays,” said Debra Wallace, Associate Professor of Nursing and Director of off campus programs. “This format allows individuals to be able to pursue a professional nursing degree while continuing to work full-time, fulfill military commitments, or...

Maud Sisley. Alma McKibbon. Ruth Temple. Adventist women of firsts. Pioneers in mission, education and healthcare, they were once household names. But their stories stopped being told -- buried by time and societal change from the church’s collective memory.As Dr. Jim Wibberding, professor of applied theology and Biblical studies at Pacific Union College, studied the church archives, he discovered the names of women he’d never heard of before. Wibberding was surprised to learn that there were so many women “prominent in shaping Adventism as we know it today.”He began making a list.Starting with 50 names, Wibberding organized a course on the History of Adventist Women, dedicated to telling the stories of female leaders who shaped the church’s faith and mission. He invited 14 additional Adventist historians to be guest speakers.Choosing which women’s biographies to share proved difficult. A dilemma arose, Wibberding said, when almost every presenter had other forgotten female figures to add to the list from their own primary document research.The problem of underrepresentation of women in history is not singular to the Adventist church. Women have been overlooked throughout United States and world history. Across the globe, there are concerted efforts to fill these gaps. The first step...

A fire broke out at approximately 4:35 p.m., Wednesday, June 8, at Angwin Valley View Auto on Howell Mountain Road in Angwin. Pacific Union College CFO Brandon Parker says the probable cause of the fire was an exploding gas tank. The Angwin Fire Department was able to quickly suppress the flames after both natural gas and Chevron gas were shut off. According to on-site witnesses and Parker, there were no injuries, and no students were in the facility.The building, leased from PUC, was located next to the campus Chevron station. Campus facility manager Dale Withers and Chevron employees immediately took appropriate actions. The Chevron station sustained minor damages that should not result in a long-term closure. Howell Mountain Enterprises is working to restore Chevron services as soon as possible....

“This is our Christmas.”That’s how Rajeev Sigamoney characterized this year’s extraordinary 18th Diogenes Film Festival that brought Pacific Union College’s visual art students, past and present, together to celebrate their achievements. Due to the COVID-19, the annual festival was canceled in 2020 and 2021. Sigamoney, professor of film and chair of the Visual Arts department, said he and his colleagues felt it was important to include the students whose projects had been delayed by the pandemic. This year’s festival featured films from three years -- more than 35 showcased over two days. The Student Showcase took place on Sunday evening, May 22, in PUC’s Dauphinee Chapel. Underclassmen projects were viewed by an audience of nearly 120 in two 90-minute blocks followed by an awards ceremony. A panel of judges made up of PUC alumni named Fabiola Ixcot the Filmmaker of the Future for her exceptional work in “Fading.” Filmgoers voted via text message during the event to pick the Audience Choice Award. Josue Hilario and his film “Sanity” won as well as Ysabelle Labaco and Atlas Snarr for “Unconditional.”Part two of this year’s film festival, Senior Showcase, was celebrated Sunday, May 29, and featured eight senior thesis films. “St. Helena...

Balancing being a full-time student and athlete can be challenging. In addition to classes and coursework, student athletes also train, attend practice and travel to events both in and out of state. At Pacific Union College student athletes participate in basketball, volleyball, soccer and cross-country.A record number of 75 PUC Pioneer athletes were named as recipients of the Scholar Athlete Recognition Program at an annual sports banquet on May 15. These honorees were chosen from across the four different men’s and women’s varsity sports teams. Thirty-nine Scholar Athletes had a GPA of 3.0 or higher while 36 Distinguished Scholar Athlete recipients achieved a GPA of 3.5 or above. Tyler Wilensky was named as the Presidential Scholar Athlete of the Year. The men’s cross-country runner had the best academic record among the Pioneer athletes this year as the athlete with the highest cumulative GPA.. As the winner, Wilensky was awarded a $1,000 scholarship. “We have seen an overall increase of awards -- over 15% from last year to this year,” said PUC Athletic Director, J.R. Rogers, “with over 70% of athletes receiving recognition.”On Thursday June 2, these distinguished athletes were also acknowledged at the Student Awards Celebration in the PUC church.View...