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Disney animator Marshall Toomey spoke at Pacific Union College on March 2 about his career and experience with Disney. Toomey, who worked on classic Disney characters such as Rafiki from The Lion King and the Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was met by an engaged audience of students, faculty and community members, who filled the Chan Shun Hall lecture room. Toomey talked about his career and what it has taken him to get this far. Above all, Toomey stressed perseverance. “Follow your dream,” he said, and that is exactly what he’s done. Students resonated with Toomey and his energetic personality. Film and television major Marcus Klonek was just one of many students who enjoyed Toomey’s lecture. A future animator himself, Klonek found Toomey’s career inspirational. It was rewarding to hear Toomey speak and “just get the feeling from a professional on what it takes to be in the field,” Klonek said. “It's neat that he’s the guy who does the final animations which get shown on the big screen.” Toomey has worked with Disney for over 30 years and loves his work because, as he says, “I get to draw every day.” Even as a child, he knew...

A tall, handsome young man in a blue velvet blazer and a thin black tie walks onto the stage. In a single moment, the silence of the crowd disappears as though Justin Timberlake had come to Pacific Union College. Girls scream; boys applaud. The 400 students packed into Dauphinee Chapel give PUC alum Tad Worku the warmest welcome back home. “Being here, being around you guys, this feels more like a jam session,” Worku tells the crowd. “It just feels like home.” The highly anticipated performance by the former business major and his band of four full-time musicians (whom he calls "psychotically gifted") was undoubtedly the event of the weekend. Worku’s band, consisting of Marcus Phillips on the bass, Nate Mercereau on the guitar, Q Jackson on the drums, and gospel keyboardist Dave Jackson, left the stage with the audience on their feet. “The musicians were…indescribable!” said Student Association social vice president Chris Madrid. “Everyone was just amazed at how incredible they were.” The group played a set of 10 songs, ranging from pieces Worku wrote for other artists in the time he worked for production companies to his very first composition “Stormy Weather,” which he wrote as an 18-year-old...

Sporting a bright yellow t-shirt and a magnetic smile, sophomore biochemistry major Anthony Yeo sits at a table in the Pacific Union College library to take a break from studying for a cell-molecular biology exam. Seventeen units and three science classes is a lot to take on for a 19 year-old student, but Yeo discovered a secret weapon to combat stress while generating altruism in the town of Angwin: mentoring. “It’s a great opportunity to help someone,” says Yeo. “And for that hour each week, I don’t have to study anymore!” A self-proclaimed infectious happiness virus, Yeo was ironically matched up with a fifth grader named Patrick who Yeo considers to be “pretty mellow.” “It’s almost like a game trying to get him to open up,” Yeo laughs. “But I really enjoy spending time helping him; it’s very rewarding.” Dr. Margo Haskins, associate professor of education, started the mentoring program last winter after she spoke to the campus about “the importance of showing God’s love in tangible and real ways,” she says. “I got to thinking, ‘Okay, I’m throwing this out there, so I need to bring something to this campus that will be meaningful to everyone involved.” Haskins first...

This February, the Dramatic Arts Society at Pacific Union College hosted "Inspired By," a new works festival featuring three original plays. Each play was performed once as a staged reading after 12 hours of rehearsal, and audience members provided input on strong and weak points. The casts and directors then went back to work to develop the plays further before performing a second reading. "Kingdom Borrowed: A Tragedy" was written by current drama senior T. K. Widmer, who plans to pursue an MFA in theater pedagogy, and directed by alumna Heather Denton. The play is about the biblical King Saul, looking at the familiar story through Saul's eyes rather than David's. Current English major Peter Katz's "The Hectic in My Blood" was directed by alumna and drama program director Mei Ann Teo and inspired by Hamlet. The play is about a three-person performance of Hamlet that goes wrong when one of the players begins to lose his grip on reality. "Julia Gibbs Never Went to Paris" by alumnus Timothy Wolcott gives center stage to two supporting characters from Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," Julia Gibbs and Simon Stimson. The play, directed by alumna Cambria Wheeler, addresses dreams and the choices we...

Aren Rennacker is a busy man. He’s a full time student. He plays varsity basketball. He’s a resident assistant in Grainger Hall dormitory. These things are all major time commitments. You’d think this 21-year-old would take advantage of his weekends for a little rest and relaxation. But like many other student volunteers at Pacific Union College, he’s up at dawn on Sabbath mornings—shuttling local children of broken homes to KidzReach, one of PUC’s most powerful student ministries. “It’s just an amazing ministry that’s reaching out to those who really could use it,” says Rennacker. “And I see it as a direct response to Christ’s command to deny self and serve other people who are suffering.” KidzReach connects children of incarcerated parents and similar troubled backgrounds with volunteers who are committed to providing a positive influence. On Sabbath mornings, the student volunteers fan out across Napa and Lake counties to pick up the children at their homes and bring them to church. The children are fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Beyond that, the kids spend the day in the care of the volunteers—playing in the park, or just hanging out with stable, loving, Christian young adults. KidzReach was born out of...