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Academically outstanding 7th-9th-graders got their first taste of college life July 25-30 at PUC’s PacificQuest, an annual program designed to expose middle school students to college-level coursework and encourage them to aspire to higher education. Students participated in two courses, a core class and an elective. This year’s core class was Telling Tales, which abandoned written documents to explore history through oral tales, photographs and artistic images, and everyday objects. Students also chose between Pushing Boundaries, an art course that explored non-traditional techniques using graphite, ink brush, charcoal and pastel, and Chemistry, in which students learned a fun way to understand the periodic table and engaged in lab experiments. Both electives challenged students. The goal of Pushing Boundaries was to inspire visual creativity. This was accomplished through unusual activities, such as drawing standing up with ink brushes attached to the end of long sticks and paper on the floor, copying an image that begins blurry and becomes progressively clearer, and drawing expressive lines. Deangela Samonte a ninth-grader from San Francisco Adventist School, recalls drawing expressive lines with her feet. “It’s not as easy as it looks,” she says. Instructor Thomas Morphis, a fine art professor at PUC, comments, “[The students]...

PUC prep alumna Brittany Brown has been named the new Pioneers women’s volleyball coach at Pacific Union College. “It is exciting to invite Brittany Brown back home,” says Pioneers athletic director Robert Castillo. “She will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, giving our program some much needed stability, not to mention her energy and focus, needed to return our program back where it belongs.” Born and raised in the Napa Valley, Brown has spent the last five years involved volleyball in Southern California. She is looking forward to returning to the familiar surroundings of her home community and the gym where she carries many fond memories. She is excited about the future of PUC volleyball and has lots of experience to bring from her time down south. As a player, Brown played collegiate volleyball at Azusa Pacific University, an NAIA school outside of Los Angeles, as a starting outside hitter and libero. While at APU her team attended and competed twice in the NAIA national tournament. She was named the NAIA player of the week her freshman year in 2005, and also went on to set the current record for digs in a single season with 524. Before college...

It is summertime at Pacific Union College once again. The hustle and bustle of the regular school year has died down as many students have left to study abroad, visit family at home, work at summer camps and gain valuable experience through internships. Although much of the PUC family has dispersed, the school has a wide variety of academic goings on every summer—from very unique learning opportunities to general and continued education courses. The flexibility of the summer schedule allows for a number of exciting classes that would not be possible to hold during the year. Many of these are among students’ most memorable educational experiences. “Ashland is the perfect atmosphere to fall in love with Shakespeare,” says English professor Cynthia Westerbeck. That is why she is excited to take her Shakespeare in Performance class to Ashland, Oregon to enjoy three days of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This year’s class will watch “Twelfth Night,” “Hamlet,” Part I of “Henry IV,” and “Throne of Blood” (a Japanese adaptation of “Macbeth”). PUC held a two-week painting class at its Albion Field Station, a perfect location for artistic inspiration. Fine arts and graphic design major Amador Jaojoco comments that “A painting a day...

When Pacific Union College alumna Patricia Thio began work on two particular documentary episodes for a TV program, she knew the stories were powerful—but she didn’t know the national and international recognition they’d bring. But lights, cameras, and congratulations rewarded Thio at this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony in San Diego, California. There, the Associate Director of PR Video Production at Loma Linda University won awards for two episodes she produced for the university’s documentary-style show, “Loma Linda 360º.” The episode “Armed for the Challenge” won in the documentary-cultural category, while “PossAbilities” was honored in the human-interest section. Thio adds the “winged woman” to a collection of other honors for “Armed for the Challenge,” including Best of Show from the Public Relations Society of America, Inland chapter, and six international film festival awards. Under Thio’s direction, “Armed for the Challenge” tells the story of Willie Stewart, an athlete whose loss of an arm has not stopped his athletic ambitions: He is training for the physically challenged triathlon USA championships. In addition, he also directs the PossAbilities outreach program at Loma Linda University Medical Center East Campus. This program offers community and activities for individuals with permanent physical injuries. In Thio's episode...

More attention has been given recently to the post-war lives of American soldiers, ranging from hit movies to efforts to educate troops and the general public about post traumatic stress. As this attention makes clear, the transition from army-man to the normal life is one that is not simple to execute. “It’s extremely frustrating to go from the battlefield to a civilian environment,” says Iraq veteran Adrian Avila. “The adjustment is really painful sometimes.” Unbeknownst to most, this is a transition that a number of students have had to face at Pacific Union College when they return to studies after military service. Avila, a senior at PUC, saw the need to help students like himself adjust, and he collaborated with social work professor Fiona Bullock start the PUC Veterans Club “to serve veterans’ needs on campus and in our community.” Bullock is an '83 PUC grad who started about two years ago working as a post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) counselor at the Veterans Center in Sacramento, so she was already familiar with the re-assimilation challenges facing veterans — and very sympathetic to their experience and the complications they face at college. Bullock and Avila set out to address those...

During the 2010 General Conference World Session in Atlanta Georgia, the Hope Channel featured Pacific Union College President Heather Knight and PUC Outreach Chaplain Norman Knight on a special edition of “World of Hope.” The episode, taped on July 2 in front of a live studio audience in the World Session exhibit hall, focused on Knight’s appointment as PUC’s first female and black president and the couple’s ability to balance a high profile careers and family. Show host Kandus Thorp started the interview by asking how Heather manages such a hectic life as an administrator, pastor’s wife, and a mother of a large blended family. “Well, one thing I do believe is that when God calls on you to do something, he also empowers you and equips you to get the work done,” said Heather, who has worked in education for more than twenty years. Heather also stated that most important is to “start each day with prayer and you really have to ask God for wisdom.” The couple, who married in 2003, also shared how they raised eight children—all of whom are college graduates or completing their college degrees—by building a corporation of sorts with their family. “We put...

It's a June day in Atami, Japan, and a group of students and professors are getting a new lodging experience at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn where they sleep on mats on the floor, wear yukata (casual summer kimonos), and eat traditional food. While memorable, the ryokan experience is just one of many adventures on a ten-day trip introducing these 15 Pacific Union College students and three professors to Japan — modern and traditional — for two classes, an Asian seminar history class and a political science class on U.S. foreign relations. History professors Ileana Douglas and Hilary Elmendorf led the trip and taught the classes, and biology professor Aimee Wyrick went along just for the experience. The students met for several class periods on campus before departing; while on the trip, the learning took place almost entirely on the go, with some meetings or debriefings on buses between tour sites. Each student journaled the experience and chose a topic for a follow-up research paper. They started in Tokyo, exploring three shrines and a blend of modern and traditional culture. Then they visited ancient capitals Kamakura and Kyoto, spent time in a national park where they could view Mt....

Joining tens of thousands of Adventists from around the world in Atlanta, Georgia, Pacific Union College is represented at the 2010 General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Joining scores of other church organizations in the exhibit halls, PUC hosts a booth featuring service projects run by current students and alumni. President Heather J. Knight is one of the PUC administrators and staff representing the college at the session, and she was asked to write a "Voices in the Dome" piece for the Adventist Review, reflecting on a Sabbath service at the session. In the article, she writes, "We saw and experienced the beloved community of Christ, a people in one accord worshipping on the Sabbath day. This was beautiful to see—women and men adorned in their colorful native dress from so many countries around the world, yet there seemed to be no strangers there."...

At the center of academic success at Pacific Union College is the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC). The TLC provides students with comprehensive academic support, helping students develop competencies that directly enhance their success in the classroom. Jennifer Wareham Best, TLC director, envisions what is necessary for student success. "My role is multifaceted and has an arm in student persistence, academic support programs, and academic problem-solving," she says. Wareham Best heads a TLC team that offers services such as academic mentoring and advising, group and individual tutoring sessions, and workshops and services catering to frustrated learners and students with learning disabilities. It is Wareham Best’s job not only to devise programs to support her vision to help students succeed, but also to hire people who love students and have a passion for their success to run these programs. “The things I like best about my job,” she says, “are strategic planning for student success and seeing the light come on in students’ eyes when these strategies work for them.” Valerie Yingling, TLC tutoring coordinator, is responsible for hiring and training student tutors who facilitate group study sessions for a wide variety of classes and also work one-on-one with students who...

In a ceremony held at the David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., Debra Winkle, the director of Med Tech/LVN to RN programs for Pacific Union College, was made an Honorary Commander of the 60th Medical Group’s Inpatient Operations Squadron at David Grant USAF Medical Center. Winkle coordinates the nursing program for PUC that allows Licensed Vocational Nurses to complete a degree and become Registered Nurses, and she runs a branch of this program for medical technicians at Travis. It's the only on-base nursing program in the Air Force, and it's given many Med Techs a chance to complete a degree — despite full-time jobs, families, and deployments — which has the potential to move their careers forward, both in and out of the military. So on April 15, when Colonel Lynne Taylor, 60th Inpatient Operations Squadron commander, presented Winkle with the squadron flag and Commander's pin, 60 IPTS personnel gave Winkle a standing ovation. The goal of the Honorary Commander program is to nurture a link between civilian supporters and senior leadership at Travis AFB. According to the program guide, Honorary Commanders can be nominated from a variety of community affiliations to "assure an exchange of...