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For more than 140 years, Pacific Union College has been a pillar of education, preparing and supporting students for lives of service and leadership. Many alumni have embarked on remarkable journeys of faith and service, particularly as teachers. Among those educators are two couples who stand out as examples of the enduring impact of Seventh-day Adventist education and mission. In addition to their shared beginnings at PUC and a deep commitment to their faith, these couples have embraced their roles as educators, shaping hearts and minds with a passion driven by their faith in God and an unwavering dedication to excellence. Both couples expressed gratitude to PUC for giving them a strong educational foundation. They attributed their success as teachers to the guidance and mentorship of numerous professors, especially those in the education department, who supported them academically and spiritually.Matt and Kim Bennie work at Redlands Adventist Academy, where they take their responsibility as educators seriously. Each day, they strive to instill a love of Christ in their students.“My hope is that students feel God’s love and embrace their true identity of being children of God,” Matt said. “As students create in the classroom, we can connect all lessons back...

From February 3-4, PUC on Broadway was showcased at St. Helena High School Performing Arts Center. People braved the winter weather to watch, but the cast believed it was well worth it. PUC on Broadway is the product of people coming together to try something new. The show was a production where performers sang songs from different Broadway musicals. Where a musical has one cohesive plot–they took Broadway songs and put them out of context. This musical show is the brainchild of PUC’s Student Association President Kaitlyn Nakanishi. Just two weeks after the Jericho Road musical showcased at the college campus, she put up posters advertising auditions. She invited PUC student Leila Beltran as co-director to help choose songs, coach the performers, and be the musical director. From there, they hit the ground running and created the program. Nakanishi was the co-director, producer, and choreographer for PUC on Broadway. She choreographed every single movement and production of the show. Ronnie Zanella, a PUC music professor, and Mika Palitang, a junior biology and music major, were their accompanists; with Jeremy Hadley and his team as the sound and lighting crew.They held auditions two weeks before Thanksgiving break, had rehearsals in between Thanksgiving...

Dwight Nelson, the longtime Seventh-day Adventist pastor of the Pioneer Memorial Church, recently retired after 40 years there. Yet, retirement hasn’t dimmed his passion. Instead, he is focused on living on the brink of eternity, the soon return of Jesus, and the undeniable challenges facing America—specifically, religious liberty and the dangerous rise of Christian nationalism.“I’m grateful to be coming to PUC—because I believe young adults are the strategic key to waking America up to this critical moment in history,” Nelson said in an interview. “We as a nation are fractured on practically every level of life and culture—racially, spiritually, economically, politically, socially—and I’m convinced the young are God’s essential endgame move to bring healing to America.”On March 1-2, Pacific Union College hosted the Northern California Conference’s (NCC) annual Religious Liberty Summit. The event centered on three powerful messages from Nelson and breakout workshops featuring several prominent presenters, including two Superior Court judges, a community organizer, the chief of staff for a California state senator, and a historian. The weekend event culminated in a panel discussion, fostering thought-provoking conversations on pressing religious liberty issues.NCC has sponsored religious liberty events for several years—three annually on this vital cause. These include the spring...

Pacific Union College recently announced that it received state approval for a new nursing training partnership with Adventist Health Sonora. The PUC education center will further the college's goals of growing its nursing program and help meet the rising need for highly qualified healthcare professionals in the Tuolumne County area. “In order to expand nursing education to rural areas, hospitals must partner with nursing schools,” said Kimberly Dunker, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at PUC. “Because of the long-standing history between our Adventist organizations, we are able to not only partner but share the same values and beliefs for nursing education and talent acquisition.”The Associate Degree of Nursing (ADN) program will be open to Adventist Health employees and prospective students in the area looking to move into the nursing field. Pre-nursing classes will begin in April. The nursing program will commence in September.The California Board of Registered Nurses (BRN) and the Education Licensing Committee (ELC) approved the addition of 18 students to PUC’s nursing program at the Sonora site. This hard-won achievement results from a two-year collaborative effort by PUC and Adventist Health to establish a new nursing education center in an underserved area. Though California will...

Thanks to two recent grants, Pacific Union College’s Department of Visual Arts will begin this spring to construct a new and innovative media center.The Tonge Media Center in Fisher Hall will house an advanced audio and video studio with state-of-the-art technology and equipment. The center will provide high-quality video and audio production access to the entire campus community. Other components of the center will include an office, kitchen, dressing room, and various equipment storage rooms.The primary objective of The Tonge Media Center is to offer film majors invaluable hands-on experience with the latest technology and methods. The center also addresses a longstanding need at PUC for a streamlined content creation process.“The Tonge Media Center will allow Fisher Hall to become the heart of all media created and produced on PUC’s campus,” said Rajeev Sigamoney, chair of the visual arts department. “Not only will film students in visual arts benefit from the state-of-the-art technology, but every department, student, and employee on campus will have the ability to create and publish professional-level media with much greater ease than in the past.”Many other PUC departments frequently seek to produce polished videos for their web pages or social media platforms. Until now, they’ve had...