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Hundreds of dads received a very special Father’s Day gift in Angwin Sunday, April 17—the gift of watching their children successfully complete their undergraduate educations. Pacific Union College graduated its 124th class on June 17 in the Angwin campus’s beautiful Commencement Grove. “It’s the best Father’s Day present I could ever have,” said Geoff Brummett of Redlands, Calif., whose son, also Geoff, graduated as a senior class officer with a double major in graphic design and photography. The class of 2012 comprised 286 graduates representing fourteen states and eight countries. Over 75 academic distinctions and honors were presented, with 14 summa cum laude graduates, nine magna cum laude, 43 cum laude and 10 graduates from the honors program. The class most notably included 119 graduates from the department of nursing, 40 from department of business and 22 in the visual arts. PUC board member and Adventist Health regional CEO Terry Newmyer presented the commencement address on Sunday morning. A veteran healthcare administrator, Newmyer’s leadership has been instrumental in a dramatic fiscal turnaround at St. Helena Hospital over the last several years. He is also the proud father of Michael, a cum laude business major and member of the graduating class....

PUC senior Mindy Nelson is eager to take on a new challenge she faces this fall after she graduates. This outstanding student will take the knowledge she’s gained in her biology studies and her in-field experience to the prestigious veterinary program at the University of California Davis. When asked if PUC has prepared her for this step, her response is immediate. “Absolutely,” Mindy says. “I think that my science background here will make the transition to vet school much easier.” The classes she’s taken have, although focused on human medicine, prepared her as they “cross the border into animals as well.” The Major Field Test for biology, a comprehensive exam required of all graduating biology majors and consisting of 150 multiple choice questions, tests both laboratory and field knowledge, diagrams, and experimental skills. While PUC ranked in the 99th percentile, Mindy’s individual score was in the 99.9th percentile of students nationwide. Her extensive experience in veterinary clinics also gave her the edge she needed to make it into the competitive program. “At UC Davis, their average accepted student has about three thousand hours of shadowing a vet,” Mindy says. With 2,600 hours when she applied, Mindy’s advantage came from the...

Critically acclaimed author Maxine Hong Kingston spoke at Pacific Union College, May 31, on the “Woman Warrior's Journey to Peace” in the latest and final installment for the year of the Colloquy Speaker Series. Kingston spoke about how she became involved in anti-war activism during the Vietnam War and protested against military action before the 2003 U.S. Occupation of Iraq. Speaking on how she and her husband aided AWOL soldiers in Hawaii during the Vietnam War, Kingston noted the important role one’s conscience plays in life. “I truly believe that what protects us from harm are our values, and our conscience, and being able to know what that conscience is saying.” Kingston said that peaceful values can be traced back through the history. “These values of non-violence, we can trace them to Martin Luther King, Jr., and before him, to Ghandi, and before Ghandi, to the American Transcendentalists,” she said. Thoreau opposed the First American Intervention (Mexican-American War) and even refused to pay taxes in protest, Kingston noted, but he could not get away from the signs of war. “Even in the quiet of Walden Pond, he could hear the music coming from his neighbors, and it was Marshall Music...

When PUC social work major Erica McCray went in to the PG&E office in Napa, Calif., on May 30, she thought she was interviewing for a chance at the company’s Bright Minds Scholarship. She was in for a surprise—PG&E had already selected her from a pool of 8,000 as one of ten statewide recipients of the $30,000 scholarship, renewable for four years of education. “When I walked in, there were balloons, cake, and a giant check with my name on it!” says McCray, emotion still ringing in her voice a day after the surprise award ceremony. “I just started praising the Lord…It blows my mind, and I still can’t stop smiling.” To McCray, the moment seems to be a turning point after many difficult years. When her husband abruptly left her six years ago, he took everything but their three children. McCray suddenly found herself without a partner, a significant income, or even access to what had been their joint bank account. Despite the sudden, unexpected hardships, McCray never stopped trusting God to sustain her through the most difficult times. “I had just been walking on faith,” she says. “I thought that the lessons I had to learn were how...

Elizabeth Talbot, former associate speaker for the Voice of Prophecy radio broadcast, spoke at PUC May 18 and 19 about God’s abounding love and the Holy Spirit’s calling for each person. At Friday night Vespers, Talbot focused on the story of the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus at the well, found in John chapter 4. “She had never met anybody who loved her more than her failures,” Talbot said of the Samaritan woman. Talbot outlined five obstacles the Samaritan woman had to overcome before Jesus could reach her. First came the obstacle of prejudice. Talbot said that this woman had an inferiority complex that prevented her from understanding how Jesus’ love transcended society’s prejudice. “God never spoke the prejudice language and never will,” Talbot declared. Second was superiority, seen in verse 12. The woman asked Jesus if He compared Himself to her ancestor Jacob as a way of giving herself false superiority. “Religious superiority is the worst kind,” Talbot said. “It’s when you bully other people with your religious heritage.” Third was her use of superficial truth, rather than the whole truth. In John 4:17, the woman told Jesus she had no husband, saying nothing of the five husbands she...