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For years, nursing students from Pacific Union College have been traveling the 30 miles to Queen of the Valley Medical Center (QVMC) for clinical rotations and, eventually, for job opportunities. So when QVMC set a goal to achieve "Magnet Status" by 2013 with 100 percent of their nursing leaders and 65 percent of staff nurses holding at least a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (BSN), a collaboration with PUC was natural. "We have had a long history of working with the Queen," says PUC nursing department chair Shana Ruggenberg. "And we have similar missions; we both come at this from a religious mission perspective." Several other schools wrote proposals for providing an on-site RN-to-BSN nursing program at QVMC, but PUC's was selected to begin last year. The PUC nursing department provides the students with all the core upper division nursing courses in one-night-a-week classes, with religion courses completed on two full Sundays. QVMC provides classrooms in their corporate center in Napa and tuition support for their employees. Of the 17 students currently enrolled in the program, most are already working at QVMC. The purpose of this program, which is similar to another PUC offers in Fairfield, is to give...

On February 11, Jimmy Ha, a beloved religion professor who has been battling cancer, spoke for Pacific Union College's annual senior recognition program. The officers of the class of 2010 invited Ha to speak at this program, and the school body welcomed him with a standing ovation. Ha, who is also a PUC alumnus, explored "what unites us as a community of faith and learning — besides Facebook." He suggested that key elements are that we all long for meaning, we believe in the idea of truth, we believe in the notion of good and evil, we are interdependent, and we share the Christian faith. But, he said, "ultimately what unites us is death." Acknowledging the apparent morbidity of that statement, he elaborated: "When a Roman general would return from war parading in triumph into Rome to the adulation of the admiring crowd, a slave would behind him whisper into his ear, 'Memento mori.' Remember you shall die." So, in this moment of recognizing students' accomplishments and looking to a bright future, Ha said, "I whisper humbly behind you, 'Memento mori.'… It is a call to humility that makes all these commonalities I mentioned even possible." He recounted how as...

When a massive earthquake devastated Haiti this January, one PUC alumnus was especially touched. Nicole Wilson, class of 2006, had just returned from the impoverished island nation, where she and a group of Christian missionaries had been ministering to the medical, social, and spiritual needs of the people there in the wake of several hurricanes last year. This most recent disaster has served as a call to this missionary, who is now in the process of developing an international organization devoted to providing care to people living in underdeveloped countries. Wilson plans to open the organization’s first center—which will contain a clinic, orphanage, and learning center—in Haiti, a place that has grown very close to her heart. “Unfortunately it took a natural disaster, but I think it shed light on Haiti,” says Wilson. “I’m hoping God’s plan is for it to be rebuilt, and maybe we’ll obtain the resources they need to be able to do so.” Wilson got her start in missions at PUC when she joined a group ministering in Thailand in 2003. That trip, along with opportunities like PUC’s Homeless Ministries, ignited her passion for service. “PUC is very service-oriented, and the encouragement of missions I received...

The midpoint of an athletic team’s building season is a kind of like looking at half a glass of water—you have to decide how you want to look at it. Fortunately, PUC’s Pioneers women’s basketball is a team full of hard-working optimists. “We don’t have a winning record,” admits forward Vanessa Felder. “But we’re getting to the point where we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we’re pushing forward.” Felder, a junior, is one of only two upperclassmen on this year’s squad. The rest are sophomores who have only been playing together since last season. It’s been the team’s biggest challenge this year as they face more experienced opponents in the California Pacific conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. “Everybody that we recruit knows that we’re very young; we’re building toward the future,” says assistant coach Doug Wilson. “But this year we’ve won as many games as they have in the past four years. So the morale really is good.” This goal of continual improvement is what keeps the women motivated on the court. But during this building year, the coaches and the players are also working on another critical value off the court: building a team...

This past summer, Pacific Union College student Robert Abdul-Karim collaborated with Pastor Marshal George of Alameda Seventh-day Adventist Church to take a unconventional approach to evangelism for Abdul-Karim’s theology degree. Together, the two decided that their ministry would be used as a way to connect with the community on a level deeper than simply distributing pamphlets or literature. While working on a small-group ministry on the Bay Area island of Alameda, the two witnessed young children skateboarding down the former naval base with no particular direction or purpose. So the two worked together to plan a ministry in the form of a skate clinic with an all-too appropriate name: Alameda Extreme. “We wanted to give the kids something to do,” says Abdul-Karim. “That’s where the idea of having a skate clinic came up – to help them out, to encourage them.” Taking this approach, the PUC students who volunteered to join Alameda Extreme went to the skate park simply to interact with the young skaters. One foggy morning in Angwin, Abdul-Karim loaded up a school van with six yawning underclassmen, all a little uncertain about what the day would bring. Once they arrived on base, the students left their nerves...