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At Pacific Union College’s annual Parent Orientation on September 19, parents of incoming freshmen received a special blessing in preparation for the start of the school year. College officials also shared information on how the parents can help their students make the most of their time at PUC. Campus chaplain Laffit Cortes commended the parents and offered a blessing over all new students and their families. “Father,” Cortes prayed, “I want You to embrace these parents and give them the peace that surpasses all understanding, that they may know that You are watching over their children, that, Father, You will not abandon them.” For Marsha Horton, there were a number of reasons she and her son Byron felt that PUC was the right choice. Coming from Michigan, they were looking for a school in California and one with a Christian foundation. PUC not only offers his exercise science major, but is also his grandmother’s alma mater. “I loved [the blessing]. I think it’s a good idea to have everybody in the room and just bless this campus and the students and the parents as they start this new journey,” said Horton. “I thought that was a very important and moving...

A group of Pacific Union College students and staff spent a week providing medical care and health information to villagers along the Amazon River—part of a medical service trip in conjunction with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Brazil, August 21-29. The trip continued a recent increase in focus on humanitarian service at the college. The group traveled along the Amazon River aboard a boat, the Luzeiro 26, stopping in the remote villages which line the river. The Luzeiro 26 is one of ADRA’s river boats dedicated to reaching the villagers in the interior Amazon Basin in Brazil. With the help of local professionals, the group set up medical clinics for villagers to consult with a physician or receive dental care. They also conducted medical screenings, health presentations, workshops, and expos to aid the communities in preventing future medical issues. The educational programs make a notable impact in the locals’ lives, explains Fabio Maia, service and missions coordinator at Pacific Union College. “The problems you see in these communities are the same,” says Maia. “A lot of the people are dehydrated because they don’t drink enough water and they sweat like crazy—it’s 100 degrees and 100 percent humid, so people...

PUC physics student Shalynn Romano received the top student presenter award for outstanding research at the International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry (CAARI) this summer in Fort Worth, Texas. The conference included professional research physicists, and Romano’s award was in a category typically reserved for graduate students. “To be recognized for research at a professional level while being an undergrad student was a great accomplishment,” says Romano. “It made me feel like anything was possible with hard work and confidence.” Romano conducted her award-winning research at her summer internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, one of the premiere experimental research facilities in the world. The subject was the energy exchange of charged particles. Although her research team included several other students and physicists from educational and scientific institutions around the world, Romano was named first author on the presentation of their findings due to her extensive work and commitment in the lab. “She is very motivated and focused, which has helped her as a researcher,” says PUC physics professor Vola Andrianarijaona, one of Romano’s collaborators on the project. “This is very important, because in research you are the teacher of yourself.” Although CAARI...

U.S. News & World Report ranked PUC the second most ethnically diverse liberal arts college in the nation, in the magazine’s annual list of the best colleges and universities released last week. The ranking calculates the proportion of minority students among the student body, excluding international students. Hispanic students make up the largest single minority group, according to the report. PUC administrators celebrated the distinction as an unique educational advantage. "Living, working, and studying collaboratively with people who come from a variety of backgrounds gives students an opportunity to learn about people, ideas, and cultures, and to think critically about new ideas," says academic dean Nancy Lecourt. “It also helps prepare them for the current working world, where they often find themselves working on teams with people who are quite different from themselves.” View the official ranking online at U.S. News & World Report....

One-hundred eighty students from 23 Adventist academies visited PUC for the 2012 Publication Workshop on Wednesday and Thursday, learning writing, photography, and design techniques from college professors and working publication professionals. “The classes have really opened my mind, and just what we’ve learned today has helped us come up with a great theme for our yearbook this year,” said Brandie Scott from Mother Lode Adventist Junior Academy, a first-time attendee at Publication Workshop. “I love it so far—it has been amazing!” High school yearbook and newspaper staffers chose from courses including photojournalism, layout, brainstorming, Photoshop, editor’s forum, and feature writing. Teachers lead the eager students in many hands-on learning activities, from spreading out across campus to develop their eye for photo opportunities, to creating scrapbook-like mood boards to help refine yearbook themes. “It’s exciting to see the potential in these students and see their excitement in learning the subject,” said Brian Kyle, a photographer and graphic designer in PUC’s public relations office, who taught several photography classes at this year’s program. “When you see them catch on it’s a very fulfilling experience.” The event also included a contest that awarded the attending schools for outstanding work on their latest newspapers...

Juniors in PUC’s Honors Program hada stunning start to their summer when they spent three and a half weeks inFlorence, Italy as part of the annual “Beauty” seminar, June 28-July 24. Studentsin the seminar focussed on the definition of beauty, primarily within thecontext of Renaissance art, centered in Florence, along with other artisticperiods.The tour was led by CynthiaWesterbeck, chair of the department of English, along with Sylvia RasiGregorutti, professor of modern languages, and Roy Benton, professor ofmathematics. This is the second time this group of faculty has led the tour;they led it with a different group of students four years ago.According to Westerbeck, the tripgave students time to become intimately familiar with the city of Florence andits culture. “You really feel like you own Florence, you know the city—it’syours,” she says. “More than any of the other type of class, you are gettingout of the classroom and actually experiencing learning.”In addition to Florence, the groupalso visited Rome for its plethora of baroque art; the stunning ancient town ofAssisi; Venice and its acclaimed museum of modern art, the Guggenheim; andother locations. In addition to the many museums and sights, the students alsokept up an extensive reading schedule during the trip ranging...

The department of visual arts welcomes two new faculty members with extensive industry experience, providing a boost to Pacific Union College’s film and television program. The department is also welcoming a new instructor of photography. Rajeev Sigamoney comes to Pacific Union College following a career as both screenwriter and producer in Southern California. He earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and pursued additional training in filmography in Southern California with the Act One program and through the University of California, Los Angeles. He also regularly participates in a number of film festivals including SONscreen, a festival created by the Adventist Church for young Christian filmmakers. “Rajeev is very credible as both a writer and producer,” says Milbert Mariano, chair of the department of visual arts, noting Sigamoney’s considerable involvement in the film industry and Christian media. “He brings a very strong, incredible screenwriting background to the program that’s very useful for television and film.” Many students are already familiar with John ‘Tag’ Tagamolila, who is officially joining the department full-time this fall as resident artist after spending the 2011-2012 school year as an adjunct member of the faculty. A graduate of Cornell University,...

In a new list unveiled over the weekend, Newsweek and the news commentary site thedailybeast.com named Pacific Union College the most beautiful college in the nation. The ranking aggregates survey data on the attractiveness of both the campus and the students, as well as data assessing the pleasantness of the weather. "I am absolutely thrilled by this new designation for PUC from Newsweek as the most beautiful college campus in America," says President Heather J. Knight. "In many ways, this is early recognition for our collective goal to make the campus sparkle and for the hard work done by 'Team Sparkle,' which includes our landscape and facilities management teams in particular. This recognition inspires all of us in every area of our campus community to keep working even harder to make PUC a twenty-first century state of the art learning environment characterized by a God-given gorgeous and pristine setting. We are truly moving from good to great.” See the full list at thedailybeast.com....

Middle school students visited Pacific Union College to experience a preview of higher education at PacificQuest 2012, July 22 through 27. The annual program gives academically outstanding seventh- through ninth-graders a chance to earn college credit in an intensive five-day program. This year’s PacificQuest featured an introductory course in mathematics taught by Richard Rockwell, a professor emeritus of mathematics at PUC. Students selected an additional class, either in computer science or communication. “I’ve loved math all my life,” says Emma Duge, a rising freshman at Justin-Siena High School in Napa. “PacificQuest is cool this year in the way that the math course is really complex and complicated... Dr. Rockwell is such a great teacher that he makes it all easier to understand.” “I never thought I'd be doing modular arithmetic before high school,” she adds. “It's by far the highlighted week of my summer, as it was last year too.” This year, PacificQuest hosted 18 students representing eight different schools from across the Western United States and as far away as Colorado. This is the 16th year since PUC began hosting PacificQuest to give academically-minded middle school students a chance to get a head start on college. Students who want...

Most students would jump at the chance to travel to Australia and New Zealand and call it academic credit. PUC students had just that opportunity when the department of history offered its biannual summer study tour June 25 to July 7. The group spent four days in New Zealand and seven touring Australia, and logged over two days of travel on eight separate flights. “It’s sort of like one long field trip—you can go to museums and historical sites—but at the same time we had readings to do and we would connect them to what we saw and we would write journal articles about them,” says Max Morphis, a sophomore history major. “We had readings that covered all kinds of topics... It was definitely a class but it was more than just a class.” “The various museums we went to are not something that you’re going to find here [in the United States],” notes Paul McGraw, chair of the department of history. “History is something that takes a different perspective when you actually experience the stuff rather than just reading about it.” The trip provides credit for “HIST 450 - History Study Tour,” a graduation requirement for history students at...