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Educational gurus David and Roger Johnson, co-directors of the Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota, brought their dynamic workshop to the Napa Valley on June 28-30. The Johnson brothers, well-known for their international research, have dedicated their life’s work to educating teachers about the importance of cooperative learning. The workshop, coordinated by Sandy Balli of Pacific Union College’s education department, drew participants from both public and private schools from as close as Angwin and as far as Wyoming. Dr. David Johnson, professor of educational psychology at the University of Minnesota and the author of over 350 research articles and book chapters and over 40 books, has been the editor of the American Educational Research Journal. His brother, Dr. Roger Johnson, is a professor of science education at the University of Minnesota and has co-authored numerous research articles and books with David Johnson. Roger is also a member of the Search for Excellence Team of the National Science Teacher’s Association. The Johnson brothers are advancing ideas that are hundreds of years old, but which have been overlooked in recent decades. They are trying to achieve a form of the cooperative learning that took place naturally in the old one-room...

Gathering from as far as Florida and as close as PUC itself, a group of 106 teachers, educators and “ learners” from all over the Christian education community convened at PUC for the annual Adventist Virtual Learning Network convention. Nationally acclaimed authors Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt spoke at the convention, presenting ways to build a stronger learning environment. One idea they proposed was to use the term “learner” in lieu of “student” or “ teacher” in order to build a more interactive and cooperative learning atmosphere. “They really helped us look to the future,” said Bob Paulson, PUC professor and 2004 AVLN coordinator. “We see opportunity for growth, no matter what avenue we work in.” AVLN was founded on the belief that teachers and schools do not grow on their own; instead, through collaborative efforts, they can become better educators and stronger institutions. This year, AVLN made specific recommendations to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and to Adventist college presidents regarding the future of web-based classes and the need for universal acceptance of credits across Adventist colleges. The attendees hope that next year the conference will be completely online....

A group of artists congregated this year at PUC’s Albion Field Station on the Pacific coast, as happens every summer. Staying in wood cabins bordered with calla lilies and patrolled by local quail, the artists went out each morning to paint in the sea air under the direction of long-time art teachers Dr. John Hewitt and Elwood Ross. This summer Albion also adds another art class under the auspices of Elwood Ross, giving students a five-day opportunity to learn art principles using digital photography....

The graduation hubbub had barely receded when PUC’s Pro Musica (touring choir) and the PUC String Quartet embarked on a two-week music tour to Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Traveling with an Adventist Finnish tour guide and PUC Professors of Music LeRoy Peterson and Gennevieve Kibble, the group of musicians spent a night on a ferry boat, sang in the Rock Cathedral in Finland, and experienced some culinary culture. Anna Lopez, senior psychology/French major, had never eaten borscht until it was served to the group at a Russian church. “It was really good,” Lopez says with some surprise. “You can’t go by looks alone!” The group also performed at numerous Adventist schools and churches and at a camp meeting in Sweden. “By the end, our voices were pretty tired,” said Vanessa Jett, senior speech pathology major. “But the people appreciated and enjoyed all our concerts.” In fact, local musicians even presented the PUC group and its members with original musical compositions. From Bath to Canterbury, PUC Honors Program students experienced “Beauty” during a four-week seminar class at Newbold College in England. Students both read about and witnessed art presented to them by PUC Professors Nancy Lecourt and Milbert Mariano, of...

With a photography career spanning six decades, Pirkle Jones has captured, in thousands of black-and-white images, the people, place, politics and promise of California. The Rasmussen Art Gallery at Pacific Union College welcomes a Pirkle Jones exhibition opening on Saturday, October 2, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. This exhibit features 25 images that suggest the sweep and scope of Jones’ immense body of work. Examples from the documentary essay “Death of a Valley,” in which Pirkle Jones worked with Dorothea Lange to document the final year of Berryessa Valley, will be included in the Rasmussen exhibit. The artist will also be present to sign copies of his book, California Photographs, which will be available at the gallery. Jones embraces an array of genres—commercial, documentary and fine art photography. He has worked collaboratively with his wife—writer, photographer and poet Ruth-Marion Baruch—on several projects, as well as working collaboratively with Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams. These two photographers, along with Minor White and Edward Weston, influenced Pirkle’s artistic formation; he developed, however, his own idiosyncratic visual sensibility as a photographer. After taking up residence in the Bay Area as a student in the first photography class at the California School of Fine...