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Pacific Union College is delighted to announce that it has been ranked #15 in Overall Rank in the Regional Colleges (West) category and #5 in California in that same category in the 2026-2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges List. PUC has also earned a new ranking of #12 in Top Private Colleges, a category for private institutions funded entirely by non-government sources like tuition, endowments, and alumni gifts.U.S. News Best Colleges rates about 1,700 educational institutions nationwide, weighing factors like academic quality, graduation and retention rates, post-graduate outcomes, and academic resources, with the Regional Colleges (West) category awarding only 49 schools based on the career- and job-focused degrees they offer.Currently, PUC is #15 in the Overall Rank and #34 in Top Performers on Social Mobility– all in the Regional Colleges (West) category.Proudly embracing the tagline, "Learn with Purpose, Rise in Faith, and Serve with Love," PUC takes pride in and is known for its dedicated faculty and staff, who are fully devoted to serving the entire student body– from fostering a Christ-centered environment to a robust academic program."At PUC we are focused on quality and student experience," said PUC President Ralph Trecartin. "Whenever the U.S. News rankings come...

From July 29 to August 1, four of Pacific Union College’s biology professors attended the Conference for North American Division (NAD) Science Professors in Pasco, Washington. Organized by the Geoscience Research Institute (GRI), the event was an opportunity to highlight research and presentations and celebrate higher education.PUC’s Dean of the School of Sciences, Aimee Wyrick, attended the conference, alongside Chair of Biology Bryan Ness and Professors Floyd Hayes and Backil Sung. With this year's theme being “Your Wondrous Works,” scientists and professors from the GRI, Loma Linda University and other Seventh-day Adventist institutions, along with LLU graduate students presented on topics such as paleontology, geology, biology, and the environment. Through those presentations, PUC’s biology professors collected new information that would be useful in their own lectures and benefit their students. They were also able to meet new colleagues, explore research projects, and see old friends from different Adventist schools.Before the conference officially began, Wyrick joined a group of 30 faculty members and graduate students from various universities and colleges on a two-day field trip to explore the Columbia River Basalt and Channeled Scablands. They learned about the geologic history and Missoula megafloods that shaped the area. Although Wyrick already knew...

Throughout the year, the Pacific Union College aviation program has received many provisions from God, including acquiring Charlie, their Cessna 206 missionary plane, and adding several talented instructors to their team. Recently, a glider was generously donated to the PUC aviation program. Flight Center Director Nathan Tasker has been working diligently on plans for a glider program on campus, so this was nothing short of an answer to prayer for Tasker and his team.Several months ago, Tasker met with a fellow Adventist glider pilot who had been working on his glider instructor certificate and had recently acquired it. This milestone encouraged Tasker and the instructor to schedule a meeting for July 6 to plan next steps. Among those steps was the acquisition of gliders. They met at 12 p.m. as planned, and, just 30 minutes into their meeting, the daily mail arrived. In it was an unsolicited letter from someone named Joanne Lessard. In the letter, Lessard explained that her husband, George Lessard, a 1963 PUC alumnus and a passionate glider pilot, had passed away this past January. After reading the recent article circulating on the PUC website and in ViewPoint publications about “Charlie,” she inquired whether PUC could use...

Pacific Union College is thrilled to announce that the athletics department earned the Champions of Character Five-Star Institution Award for the 2025-2026 season from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). To earn this award, NAIA colleges and universities use the Champions of Character core report to measure the pursuit of character-driven athletics, where they must reach a minimum of 60 out of 100 points. With PUC scoring 100, the NAIA recognizes the college is committed to providing an experience where their student-athletes can grow not just as competitors, but as individuals.“For me, what makes this award special is that it represents our student-athletes,” said PUC Athletic Director Tony Nakashima. They have demonstrated that it’s possible to compete at a high level while showing respect for opponents, officials, teammates, and the game itself. Their commitment to living out those values is what truly earned this recognition.”Nakashima credits the coaches for creating a program built on trust, accountability, and support that positively motivates their athletes to be the best versions of themselves on and off the court. With each coach heavily invested in each player, he says they inspire their student-athletes to grow in competition and life.“At PUC, our goal is...

After graduating from Pacific Union College with a B.S. in psychology and an A.S. in Photography in 1987, Jon Wood began his career as a 3D Motion Graphic Artist before eventually returning to PUC as a professor of film and television. In 2005, the Lord impressed him to start Jesus for Asia, a missionary organization that sends missionaries to unreached areas of the Asian continent. And now, 21 years later, the ministry has worked in over 10 countries, with nearly 1,000 workers worldwide, touching the lives of many with the good news of Jesus.It was not easy to start a ministry, especially one of this caliber, but Wood and his wife, Natalie, also a PUC alumna, were determined, so the first thing they did was pray about how God would work and lead them as they felt called to lead others. “We spent months, actually years, praying about what that would look like, how it would be set up, what principles we would use to run it, what project we would start with to make the biggest impact,” he said.In the winter of 2004, Wood, along with a small team of students, traveled to Thailand around the time the Indian...