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On February 12, students in Pacific Union College’s most popular program had the opportunity to make connections and discuss potential jobs with representatives from multiple healthcare organizations at the college’s annual Nursing Job Fair. Coordinated by the department of nursing and health sciences, the fair brought recruiters to campus to meet nursing students that will soon graduate and enter the workforce. Lorie Johns, student success advisor in the department of nursing and health sciences, coordinated the fair. “It’s an opportunity for current associate’s and bachelor’s degree students to make connections with recruiters from hospitals and regional health care organizations, as well as for those recruiters to meet our outstanding nursing students,” Johns shared. Many of the hospitals represented at the fair are affiliated with Adventist Health, a faith-based, not-for-profit network with hospitals and clinics in California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. However, Johns invited a diverse group of healthcare organizations to attend the fair. “While the bulk of the facilities and organizations represented tend to be affiliated with Adventist Health, we are pleased that other local healthcare-related organizations such as Napa State Hospital and REACH Air Medical regularly attend PUC’s Nursing Job Fair,” said Johns. Other organizations represented included the United...

Pacific Union College is collaborating with the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center (NVPAC) at Lincoln Theater in the inaugural year of the Orchestra Institute of Napa Valley Fellowship Program. This new partnership is helping PUC’s young musicians hone their talents while allowing graduate artists to pursue valuable teaching and performing experience. By serving as the primary sponsor and sole housing sponsor for the Orchestra Institute Napa Valley Fellowship Program, the ensembles and instrumentalists of the department of music are benefitting from a group of talented “artists-in-residence.” The Orchestra Institute Napa Valley Fellowship Program at the NVPAC is an innovative, tuition-free, full-year performance and professional-growth program for the most exceptional post-graduate music and conservatory students in the country. The musicians enrolled in the program are provided tools to aid them in developing music careers in the 21st century: performance opportunities (including playing with the Symphony Napa Valley), service as musical ambassadors, development as self-managers, and the ability to provide music education. “We are delighted to have the Fellows on campus and hope that this partnership with NVPAC will continue as it is enriching our department and allowing us to take the study of music for the major and general student to...

Students in the department of biology at Pacific Union College know they will encounter more than slides and lectures when taking a class from Professor Aimee Wyrick. Wyrick incorporates one-of-a-kind, hands-on learning practices in Napa County to her courses. These high-impact learning opportunities provide valuable experience while teaching important principles about stewardship of the created world. Wyrick, a specialist in ecology, herpetology, and paleontology, partners with local landowners and organizations to provide opportunities to students in courses such as Ecology, Flowering Plants, and Conservation Biology. “Each quarter I have opportunities for students for internships, for research, for service-learning, and it’s not always in the same place or for the same organization,” she explained. Wyrick is currently doing research on the Calistoga popcorn flower, a federally listed “rare” species that occurs in two locations less than twenty minutes from PUC in the town of Calistoga, Calif. Specially adapted to geothermal wetlands, there are about 5,500 plants on the two sites. She and the students are involved in getting baseline data on the plant; later, they will suggest small experiments and monitoring projects to maintain the plant’s population. “Nobody has done studies on this species of plant or a plant that lives...

Pacific Union College’s enrollment services and public relations teams have introduced a new website dedicated to providing information and answering questions for future students and their families. The admissions website features fresh design in a mobile-friendly format, all geared toward sharing the distinct academic, spiritual, and social advantages of attending Pacific Union College. While the College is celebrating its highest enrollment in twenty-four years, the office of enrollment services is actively working with potential students who will enroll 2014 and beyond. Leading this effort and the development of the new website was Jennifer Tyner, vice president for enrollment management and public relations. “The main goal for this revamp was not just to make the site look good, but drive prospective students to click the apply button,” Tyner shared. “We also wanted to make a new page that would be mobile-friendly, as the old admissions page would come out jumbled and hard to read on a smart phone.” Because research shows that as many as sixty percent of young people are using their smartphones to visit college websites, adapting the admissions information to be smartphone-friendly was imperative. The new site can be accessed from smartphones and tablets as well as traditional...

PUC’s department of business administration and economicshas debuted a new Topics in Healthcare Administration course for Winter Quarter2014 that brings health care professionals to speak to students about currentissues in their areas of expertise. Many of the visiting lecturers areemployees of Adventist Health, which operates nearby St. Helena Hospital NapaValley.“There are over 900 students on campus who have expressed aninterest in a health care related profession,” shares Rodney Hardcastle, chairof the department of business administration and economics. “Since wehave a first class health care institution just five miles down the road wedecided to explore the possibility that the health care professionals therewould like to get involved with the education of our students. We foundthat they were more than happy to do so.”Douglas Houghton, director of recruitment for the NorthernCalifornia Network of Adventist Health and an adjunct professor at PUC,coordinates the class and has arranged presenters from many aspects ofhealthcare management. While the class is comprised primarily of businessmajors, students from the health sciences and pre-professional programs arealso enthusiastically enrolled in the two-credit course. In addition, theseminars are open to any interested student or community member.The January 14 installment of the series brought SteveHerber, MD, interim CEO of St. Helena Hospital...