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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...

For the second year, several students from Pacific Union College made a special trip to the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the United States, from January 23 to 28. The students were accepted into the “University Students at the Sundance Film Festival” program, a competitive program that allows a limited number of students each year to attend the festival. As part of the program, PUC students Jackson Boren, Craig Church, and Ryann Pulido and alum Annie Woods earned film credentials, had access to filmmaker-only areas at the festival, received discounted tickets and lodging, and had the opportunity to meet with other students. "The Sundance Film Festival is a unique experience because it attracts thousands of people from all over the world into a small skiing town for 10 days to experience the best in U.S. and international independent cinema,” said Stephen Eyer, a PUC film and television instructor who attended the festival with the students. “For students to be able to experience the festival first-hand is both inspirational and something they will never forget." The group saw many films, including "Bottle Shock," a film shot in the Napa Valley last summer about the 1976 French wine...

Legendary as a lecturer and beloved as a mentor, PUC history professor Walter C. Utt was mourned deeply when he died in 1985. A special endowment with its own board was established in Utt’s honor, and their most recent project to continue his legacy is the publication of two historical novels based on Utt’s work. No Peace for a Soldier and its sequel, No Sacrifice but Conscience, both published by Pacific Press, are a skillful combination of two titles by Utt published in 1966 and 1977 (Wrath of the King and Home to Our Valleys), an unfinished manuscript that he left, and the work of author and professor Helen Godfrey Pyke. Eric Anderson, one of the founders of the Utt Endowment and now president of Southwestern Adventist University, was advised that Pyke, who teaches at Southern Adventist University and has a long list of published titles, was the perfect person to complete Utt’s manuscript. “And she really was,” says Bruce Anderson, Eric Anderson’s brother and another founding member of the endowment. The endowment hired Pyke to finish the manuscript, and Southern granted her a Sabbatical. PUC president Dick Osborn talked with Dale Galusha, president of Pacific Press, about the project....

They weren’t wearing capes and they didn’t fly onto the stage, but the three local businesspersons who visited PUC for the January 17 all-school colloquy were welcomed as heroes. PUC president Richard Osborn introduced Robin Lail, Norm Manzer, and Phil Toohey by saying, “What has impressed me about you is that not only are you successful at what you do, but you seem to have a passion for helping the community.” Lail, a fourth-generation vintner of Lail Vineyards, told how she became a part of the St. Helena Hospital Foundation. “‘Should’ is my least favorite word in the language,” Lail said. “But I got involved because I thought I should.” She discovered, however, that “should” was only the beginning. “I found a passion for this institution and the community it serves that was way beyond what I’d ever imagined.” With her help, the foundation has already raised over $25 million for the first phase of a campaign to rebuild the hospital campus — an impressive sum, Osborn noted, even for much larger hospitals in big cities. Lail’s drive to make a difference is no new thing for her. “About when I was 4, I was struck by the feeling that...

On March 17, 1965, students Paul Cobb, Will Battles, Fernando Canales and Milton Hare crammed into a two-seater Karmann Ghia with the goal of driving 2,300 miles from Oakland, California, to Selma, Alabama. The objective was to join the third attempt at a march for voting rights. It was a risk; not only did the Seventh-day Adventist Church, at the time, shun the notion of political activism, but the bloodshed during the second Selma to Montgomery march served as an ominous reminder of what might await. In the face of physical, verbal, and emotional threats, the men, three of whom were Pacific Union College students, moved forward in hopes that by doing so the nation would move forward also. Bill Knott, editor of the Adventist Review, the flagship journal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, shared this little-known story at PUC’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Colloquy program on January 10, 2008. Knott was joined by Milton Hare, now an Oakland, California resident and social activist. Hare, who attended PUC before transferring to UC Berkeley, received a standing ovation from the audience, which packed the large PUC Church sanctuary. The morning program also included an official apology, by the college administration,...