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This July nine missionaries from PUC—one professor, six current students, and two recent grads—journeyed to Guatemala for a 15-day evangelism drive organized by ShareHim ministries and sponsored by The Quiet Hour radio program. The group stayed in the northeastern town of Flores from July 9-24. From that hub, the missionaries fanned out each day and each one preached a solo evangelistic series. It was a daunting challenge for the missionaries, many of whom were preaching for the very first time. “It was scary when they asked me to be the leader,” says Charo Caballero-Chambers, a PUC modern language professor and official group leader, who had never preached before. “But I [prayed], and I felt like this was what God was really calling me to do.” At the close of the trip, 36 Guatemalans decided to give their lives to God in baptism at a nearby lake. In addition, Caballero-Chambers reports that she has since received calls from pastors in the area who say that in the successive weeks many more decided to be baptized in response to the evangelistic efforts. “They tell me, ‘You have planted the seeds, and we will continue watering,” she says. The mission provided an especially...

At the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference session in Atlanta this summer, visitors to the Pacific Union College exhibit booth were confronted with a tough decision. They had to choose between donating money to an organization that mentors children in California, providing shoes for families in Ethiopia, or building a village in Nicaragua. "They are all such good causes!" said one visitor to the booth. "I don't know how to choose!" Some wanted to give to all three charities—a generous spirit that was helped by the fact that PUC was giving them the money to donate. For this General Conference PUC eschewed the usual giveaways that dominate convention exhibits and allocated $5,000 for student ministries instead. The decision of how to distribute the money was left in the hands of visitors, who were given wooden tokens that could be dropped into one of three boxes representing the ministries. At the end of the 10-day session, PUC would count the tokens, each representing 50 cents, and then write checks to the student ministries for the amounts collected. The project fits in with a culture of giving and volunteerism that is deeply ingrained at PUC. "It's just another example of how PUC has...

Pacific Union College was ranked among the region’s 10 best baccalaureate colleges by U.S. News and World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges” issue—one of the best-known and most reputable sources for college rankings. This is PUC’s 17th consecutive year on this list, which was released online this week. In addition to the recognition for outright quality of education, PUC was also ranked number two in the region for ethnic diversity, and number three for value. "Pacific Union College is again thrilled to be recognized as one of America's Best Colleges by U.S. News and World Report,” says PUC president Heather J. Knight. “This recognition highlights PUC's ability to make a distinctive impact and to deliver superior performance over a long period of time.” PUC, ranked number 10, is in a category for institutions that focus on undergraduate education and grant fewer than half their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. The ranking evaluates more than 1,400 American colleges and universities. Regionally, PUC competes among colleges in 15 western states, stretching from Hawaii to Texas. High scores are based on such elements as peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving. Ethnic diversity is evaluated...

Most college students would jump at the opportunity to travel Italy for five weeks of summer and call it academic credit. That is exactly what a group of seven PUC Honors students did from June 30-July 28, but this dream educational opportunity was a little more complicated than it sounds. The seminar entitled “Beauty” is a required component of the Honors program that explores the concepts of art and aesthetics in one of the most historically appropriate locations in the world—Florence, Italy. Students examine questions of how beauty shapes people and their views of the world and gain an understanding of the development of what is perceived as beautiful in the Western world. Every day of the course was a highly purposeful adventure. Students left the campus of Villa Aurora, the Italian Seventh-day Adventist college where they lived, early in the mornings to visit an array of museums and tour famous places such as Rome, Cinque Terre, Assisi, San Gimignano, Pisa, Lago di Garda and Venice. Afternoons were filled with three-hour art history lectures and discussions of art philosophy. Evenings were no less intensive, as students were assigned between 80 and 200 pages of philosophical readings and response writing almost...

As seagulls squealed and misty veils cooled the nights, shutters snapped—these were the sights and sounds of 2010’s digital art photography class at Pacific Union College’s Albion Field Station. One-week sessions at the college’s remote coastal facility offered students of all ages, abilities, and cameras the chance to begin or advance their photography skills, with the lovely Mendocino coast as a backdrop. Under the tutelage of Gilbert Muth, professor emeritus of biology and the station’s director, the 11 beginner-to-intermediate students enjoyed a scenic tour of the surrounding coastal area, including the communities of Albion and Mendocino and the nearby Albion River. This year, the class emphasized landscape and nature photography, as well as the uniquely quaint architecture of the area. In nearby Fort Bragg, flashes found inspiration at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. Returning to the station’s laboratory, participants learned how to improve their photos via Photoshop, in anticipation of each evening’s critiques. This culminated in Friday morning’s student slide shows, which allowed the presenters to demonstrate their digital works of art and all their hard work for the week. “Typically, the first photos on the first evening of Digital Photography need a lot of improvement,” admitted Muth. “However, by...