Archives

David Trim, a history professor from Newbold College, much-published author, and preacher, has come to Angwin from England for a one-year stint at Pacific Union College, financed by the Walter C. Utt Endowed Chair of History. This visit is no vacation stay, however; as Utt Professor for the 2008 calendar year, Trim is teaching one class each quarter, giving two lectures, and engaging in research and writing for several in-depth history projects. Trim was asked to come to PUC by the board of the Utt endowment, the college’s only endowed professorship. The endowment was established after the 1985 death of its legendary namesake, a PUC history professor who left a legacy of mentorship, brilliant lecturing, and authorship. Now, the professorship memorializes Utt and fosters Adventist scholarship by bringing great teachers to PUC and giving them time to focus their energies on research and writing. A number of conferences and book editing and essay-writing projects, along with the Utt lectures and preaching appointments, are on Trim’s agenda during his time as the Utt professor. He’ll complete the editorial on a volume of essays on European Warfare, write an essay on the history of chivalry after the Renaissance, and write a paper...

In an inconspicuous commercial area at the end of a tiny strip-mall, a door opens into a hubbub of young voices. It's 3:40 and the Angwin Teen Center has been filling up with the after-school crowd of junior high and high school students, bearing their earphones, their backpacks, and a lot of energy. PUC student Larissa Ranzolin is sitting at a small table in the thick of things, surrounded by kids and discussing a can of pumpkin pie filling with the dad of one of the teens.It's a surprisingly familial atmosphere for a teen hang-out, and that's the result of a very intentional commitment to mentorship. "Here," says executive director Tom Amato, from a couch against one wall, "the relationship is not based on behavior, performance, or production. We'll be unconditional. We help [the teens] to realize we're family."That's a big deal for many of these young students, explains PUC student Georgiana Tutu, who works as a supervisor at the Center. "Some of their home lives are pretty crummy, so it helps to know that they can come to a place that is always going to be there… it helps to know that the people that work there are always...

On March 5, students and faculty packed Alice Holst theater for the world premier of Bryonn Bain’s one-man show We Are and So I Am, a 76-minute performance that blends hip-hop and spoken word to tell the story of his experience with an unjust prison system, racism, and how to move forward despite the existence of both. And how the different influences in his life have come together to make him who he is. Bain is a spoken-word poet and prison activist. He’s a Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry Champion; founder of the Blackout Arts Collective, a grassroots organization that brings workshops and performances to public schools and prisons; and current host of BET-J’s current affairs talk show “My Two Cents.” He’s also an actor and world traveler. He is currently performing off-Broadway in the production From Auction Block to Hip-hop and is the “Poet-in-Residence” at New School University in New York. Bain experienced the unjust hand of the law when he was taken in for a crime he didn’t commit. His only crime: being black and in the wrong place at the wrong time. The experience he had proving his innocence and dealing with the prison system greatly impacted him...

Valentine’s Day may have come and gone but love was still in the air at Pacific Union College thanks to the latest Dramatic Arts Society production, “Love: is a Four-letter Word.” Audiences filled the Alice Holst Theater for six nights to watch actors explore how and why we fall in seven one-act plays. The production, which ran from February 16-24, featured seven one-act plays, ranging in length from three to 45 minutes. Tears and laughter filled the theater as characters felt the awkwardness of first wedding nights, the heartbreak of unrequited love and much more. Cambria Wheeler, who produced the one-act festival, says, “ I hope [the audience] leave thinking about the different facets of love. Our human forms of it are so different, and they can cause healing, but grief also. Love is so different. There isn’t only one love, but many ways in which it manifests itself.” Wheeler’s own appreciation for PUC manifested itself through this festival, which was a definite labor of love. Seven plays to costume, light, prep and set, thirteen actors working with four directors, and only six weeks to rehearse. But it all paid off. As one audience member said, “I was impressed by...

Not many of us can say we have felt the demoralizing effects of losing 20 family members in a single day. Ibrahim Musa Adam, a former farmer and volunteer teacher, was one of two survivors from the Darfur conflict region in Sudan who shared his first-hand account for Pacific Union College’s February 7 all-school colloquy program.Adam lived in northern Darfur in the village of Jadara. His village of about 3,000 was attacked in July of 2003 by the Sudanese army and members of the Janjaweed militia. Eighty villagers, including 20 of Adam’s family members, were killed. Adam still has over 100 relatives in six different refugee and internally displaced persons camps, and more than 80 villages have since been attacked. “They collected women and girls. One girl was raped over 20 times,” Adam told the student body at PUC, who listened in stunned quietness. “Some were able to escape because the Janjaweed don’t know the Darfur terrain very well.”Today Adam lives in Rockford, Illinois. He hopes to one day return to Darfur and help rebuild the region. Meanwhile, he shares his experience with the “Voices from Darfur” speaking tour and takes part in activist organizations.The second speaker at the colloquy...