Students, faculty, and staff packed the Pacific Union College Church on Thursday, September 23, for the annual Opening Convocation, an annual ceremony to mark the start of a new school year.

This year’s ceremony featured Dr. Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She spoke on the importance of a liberal arts education. Schneider described the shift occurring in higher education towards an emphasis on growing students into responsible members of a global society with intercultural knowledge, a great sense of teamwork, information literacy, creativity and innovation.

Naming PUC’s diversity and Adventist heritage as paramount assets to a liberal arts institution, Schneider told the students that the knowledge they gain here will prepare them to become healers of a broken and divided world. “We have our ideals in one hand and a can-do spirit in the other,” she said. “With them, we will have what we need to be part of a just and equitable society.”