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Aside from a drizzly Sunday morning, most of the weekend stayed gorgeous and sunny, providing a perfect backdrop for the 2010 Pacific Union College Parents Weekend, October 15-17. More than 100 families from all over the United States arrived on campus, eager to see how their students were faring after four weeks of school and also to get a glimpse of college life. “Parents Weekend is a great opportunity for parents to come and see what life is like on campus and see what we do, how we live, and see our friends,” says student Rayna Duran, a business major. Her mother, Jan Duran, agrees. “You get to bond with your children in their environment. So they are actually hosting you as opposed to you doing all the hosting for them at your home. They love being able to give to us in a way that we always give to them.” The event started on Friday night with the Presidential Dinner in the newly renovated Dining Commons on Friday night. Families were treated to a special dinner with the administration and the president; later in the evening, President Heather Knight gave a speech on “The Adventist Advantage,” her philosophy on...

Pianist Joy Muth Fackenthall will perform a concert at Pacific Union College as a part of the college’s Fine Arts Series on Saturday, October 23, at 7 p.m. in Paulin Hall Auditorium. The program will include selections from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Saint-Saëns. Fackenthall will be accompanied by Dr. Rachelle Berthelsen Davis, violin, and Joel Dickerson, piano. Joy earned her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Pacific Lutheran University, and a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. She teaches piano lessons through PUC's Music Department. PUC's Fine Arts Series invites the Napa Valley community to share in culturally rich musical experiences featuring outstanding soloists and chamber ensembles—some of the best and brightest of the musical world with repertoire that enrich, entice, excite and entertain. Admission to the concert is free, however, donations are accepted. Suggested donations of $10 per person can be made at the door. For more information, call the PUC Music Department at 707-965-6201....

As part of its Fine Arts Series, PUC’s music department will host two piano concerts this month at Paulin Hall Auditorium: Joy Muth Fackenthall and John Covelli. Pianist Joy Muth Fackenthall will perform on Saturday, October 23, at 7 p.m. The program will include selections from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Saint-Saëns. Fackenthall will be accompanied by Dr. Rachelle Berthelsen Davis, violin, and Joel Dickerson, piano. Fackenthall earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Washington State University and a master’s in music performance from Western Washington University. She teaches piano lessons both privately and through the college’s Paulin Center for the Creative Arts. Internationally acclaimed pianist John Covelli will perform on Saturday, October 30, at 7 p.m. The program includes selections from Copland, Lizst, Beethoven, Paul Ben-Haim, Debussy, Griffes and Gottschalk. Covelli is an international prize-winning pianist, having won two of Europe’s most prestigious piano competitions—the Queen Elizabeth of Brussels and the Busoni International Piano Competition. A Chicago-born prodigy, his career has spanned the realms of orchestral involvement, solo piano performance, and conducting in a variety of ensembles. He is a popular guest conductor, master teacher and chamber player. Covelli is also the founding conductor of the Belleayre Festival Orchestra...

The Pacific Union College religion department kicked off the school year with its annual spiritual retreat on the weekend of October 1-3. This was a weekend of fun, fellowship, and communion with God in the picturesque location of PUC’s Albion Field Station on the Mendocino coast. “This trip is often the highlight of the year for our theology majors,” says Leo Ranzolin, religion department chair. The weekend’s bonding started on Friday afternoon with a two-and-a-half hour drive from PUC. The road to Albion twists and turns in sinuous curves hugging spectacular cliffs. Upon their arrival at Albion, the students and their guests were treated to a healthy meal at the Albion cafeteria. Freshman religion major Abraham Navarro, noted, “[The food] kept getting better and better.” To kick off the Sabbath, religion and theology students provided a vespers in the recently renovated laboratory building. Theology sophomore Samantha Angeles delivered a moving message on the importance of wisdom. Fellow theology major Jason Whitley, commented, “I loved her sermon. It was a great reminder of what is important for those of us going into ministry.” The Sabbath morning church service was no disappointment, either. With the winding Albion River visible through the windows,...

It was an unusual scene at the Rasmussen Art Gallery on Saturday night, October 2, as groups of people huddled around the main show room, shoving and rolling expensive pieces of art. The creator, Michael McGinnis, stood casually by as people of all ages took turns handling his work. The show, “Superplexus: Sculptural Labyrinths,” is meant to be tactile as it features a series of three-dimensional spherical mazes navigated by a ball bearing. The largest sculpture, the Superplexus Vortex, is nearly 4 feet tall and is priced at $30,000, and the smallest is 8 inches in diameter and available for purchase where toys are sold. Also accompanying the Superplexus are prototypes and drawings, showing the creative journey from idea to completion. McGinnis estimates having spent more than 500 hours on the Vortex. McGinnis, who teaches sculpture and three-dimensional design at Santa Rosa Junior College in California, began designing complex and intricate mazes as a child. He designed and built his first three-dimensional puzzle—a rough ancestor of his acclaimed Superplexus—as a high school junior in Petaluma in 1979. It took over 20 years of numerous revisions to turn that early maze into a marketable form and eventually a stunning work of...