ANGWIN, California – Pacific Union College (PUC), the Land Trust of Napa County (LTNC), and CALFIRE are pleased to announce the permanent protection of 864 acres of priority forest land in Angwin, California. Working together, on Dec. 20 they closed a conservation easement (CE) on land currently owned by PUC. The forest will continue to belong to the college, but the easement will permanently eliminate the potential for residential, commercial, and agricultural development of the property.The PUC forest has been used by students, faculty, and the community for over 100 years, and the college wants to maintain and manage this use in the future. With this CE, the college will be able to ensure ongoing use of the forest for research, classes, and student projects.“PUC’s forest abuts both the 800-acre Las Posadas State Forest, and a Land Trust property,” explains Peter Lecourt, forest manager for the college. “This easement will create over 1,750 acres of contiguous protected land.”In recent years, PUC had considered selling their forest lands to generate funds to support their primary mission: education. The college changed course when it learned about the option of working with LTNC, the Wildlife Conservation Board, and CALFIRE to sell a CE...

Pacific Union College welcomes Pastor Kent Rufo as its new campus chaplain, a position he will assume on January 1, 2019. Pastor Rufo comes from Downers Grove Seventh-day Adventist Church in Illinois, where he has served as lead pastor since 2017. Joining Pastor Rufo in ministry to the PUC community is wife Anna, daughter Madison, and son Jadon.“Together with the Northern California Conference, we have been involved in an extensive search for a chaplain for over six months, having received applications from across the globe and reviewed over 100 candidates," explains Jennifer Tyner, vice president for student life, enrollment, and marketing. “We are very excited about the vision and passion Pastor Rufo will bring to PUC.” In his role as campus chaplain, Rufo will support the college in creating a vital and vibrant atmosphere for spiritual growth. Together with the Campus Ministries and Student Life team, he will promote students’ faith development by their engagement in worship, discipleship, and service. “My life was changed during college. I transferred to one of our sister schools from a state university. I had no intention of becoming a Christian. Two guys from my dorm adopted my roommate and me as ‘prayer targets.’ They...

On Thursday, Nov. 8, the Camp Fire, what is being billed as perhaps the most devastating fire in the state’s history, began ravaging Paradise, California. That same day, the East Avenue Church in Chico opened its doors to evacuees.“I arrived at the shelter on Friday afternoon, looking for a way to help,” says PUC alumna Kallie Griffin, who is now a pre-med student at California State University Chico. “I noticed a woman walking around in scrubs, so I introduced myself and asked how I could help.”As Griffin does not yet have any medical certifications, she was given the role of organizing and helping to lead the church-turned-shelter-turned-clinic. Over the ensuing four weeks, the church sheltered over 200 evacuees, most of them elderly, as Paradise has a high population of senior citizens.“We created a way of charting patients and ordering prescriptions with a Google Document, then created a way for us to internally communicate through walkie-talkies and a group chat,” Griffin explains. “As the days progressed, we were able to get more and more medical volunteers and were soon running a 24/7 clinic out of a gymnasium behind the church.”The clinic/shelter quickly grew to include six military tents, portable showers and...

Antonio Robles, member of the Men’s Cross Country team at Pacific Union College, has been selected for the Athlete Scholar Award by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Only around 50 student athletes across the U.S. were selected to receive this award, which recognizes students involved in an athletics program that participates in the NAIA, and who has a GPA over 3.5.“There are a lot of athletes doing great in school,” Robles says. “I am happy I was considered to be recognized with this award.”The junior biology major wasn’t expecting to hear anything from the NAIA once the season had ended, so receiving congratulations for an award just before he headed home for Thanksgiving was a nice surprise.“This award has given me motivation to keep going and excel academically,” he says. It isn’t easy being a student athlete; being part of the cross country team requires dedication even before the school year starts, and involves waking up at 6 a.m. for practice, then on race day driving over eight hours to run for a little over half an hour.“With this award, I feel like everything has been worth it,” Robles says. “Of course, my parents were happy and proud...

When the Wildlife Conservation Board announced their approval of PUC’s conservation easement proposal, a story ran in the Napa Register. This story prompted a call from Senator Bill Dodd to the office of PUC’s president, Bob Cushman, requesting a campus visit. That visit took place on Friday, Nov. 30. “The itinerary was a collaborative conversation about how best to accommodate PUC’s interest in sharing our story with our Napa Valley community, and his interests in a better understanding of who and what we do here at PUC,” Cushman explains. “It was an opportunity for him to interact with our students, as well, which we did our best to provide.”Dodd spent about three hours on the PUC campus with his field representative, Alex Pader. During this time, he visited with not only Cushman, but also Nancy Lecourt, academic dean, Brandon Parker, VP for financial administration, and Peter Lecourt, forest manager. Together they reviewed the college’s strategic plan framework, the campus physical master plan, the forest conservation easement, and the campus’ wildfire mitigation plan. Additionally, Dodd was able to speak to and have lunch with PUC Honors students.“Senator Dodd combined a bit of personal background with his talk, and focused on some...