Admissions & Aid

Jennifer Klingbeil read and watched the news about the war in Ukraine in February with both shock and compassion. Like many of us here in the United States, she felt moved to action, wanting to help the Ukrainian people but not sure how.That changed after Klingbeil received a call from Kellie Lind. Lind, Pacific Union College’s vice president of advancement, was reaching out as a friend to offer her home as a place to stay for any of Klingbeil’s relatives who might have fled Ukraine.Klingbeil felt like it was “a sign” since she had been thinking about PUC. She talked with Lind about her fervent desire to help Ukrainians. Perhaps they could work together. Their idea blossomed into an initiative -- Mission: Ukraine. Through the program, 10 Ukrainian students displaced by war will travel to the United States to attend Pacific Union College. Over 70 students have already applied to this program and have gone through a rigorous selection process. The chosen group will start school here in Napa Valley this fall.Both Ukraine and PUC are close to Klingbeil’s heart. Jennifer’s mother, Adventina Shiwotenko, was Ukrainian. Remarkably, she started the country’s first Seventh-day Adventist school in Kyiv. “Christian education was...

Since arriving at Pacific Union College in 2006, Asher Raboy has worked to build connections between the college’s music program and the Napa Valley community.Raboy, the chair of the music department and PUC’s resident artist in music has composed original works for students and brought diverse musicians to perform on campus. Now Raboy said a generous donation will help PUC further in building these community relationships.A $150,000 donation from the former local nonprofit, Angwin Community Ambulance, will help PUC renovate the main auditorium in Paulin Hall, home to the college’s music department.The renovation work, conducted in two phases, will include new seats and paint along with needed wall repairs. New carpet with thick padding and vinyl hardwood flooring for the stage will help improve the auditorium’s acoustics. The hope is for the project to be completed by early 2023, just in time for PUC to debut a student-led theatrical production -- an original musical written and scored by Assistant Academic Dean Lindsay Hayasaka. To many, the work might seem simply cosmetic. But not for Raboy.Raboy, who directed the Napa Valley Symphony for nearly two decades, talks of the project with the same passion you might find him talking about Brahms...

PUC recently received a valuable donation of equipment for the school’s swift water rescue course from Angwin Community Ambulance (ACA), a local ambulance service that was recently dissolved.The organization donated swift water gear, including wetsuits, helmets, gear bags, life jackets, and more, as well as technical rope rescue gear and rescue-specific personal protective equipment.Before being dissolved, ACA served the Angwin community for more than 40 years. During that time, many of PUC’s emergency services and emergency management students volunteered with the organization, providing emergency medical services throughout Angwin.The ambulance service donated the equipment to PUC in addition to sharing assets with other local groups that serve the community of Angwin.“Though ACA has dissolved, they still wanted to further their mission and serve the community,” said Matthew Russell, assistant professor of nursing and emergency services. “The donation of swift water equipment and technical rope rescue equipment will allow the emergency management program to continue to provide excellent training opportunities to our majors who in turn will use these skill sets to serve the Angwin community.” The new equipment was put to use in early July when students attended a swift water rescue course on the south fork of the American River...

Every graduating class has the opportunity to leave a legacy and make an impact through their senior class gift. PUC’s Class of 2022 decided they wanted the impact of their gift to be felt by the local community through a generous donation to the Angwin Food Pantry.“The class decided to give back to the community for all that they do in support of the college,” said Professor Tuwan Ussery, associate professor of social work and 2022 class sponsor. “Additionally, many of the class officers saw firsthand the need in the community through the Angwin Food Pantry and they wanted to serve community residents.”The pantry serves anyone in the area who is facing food insecurity, and the class’s donation comes at a critical time as rising food costs are causing more people to look for support. The pantry has seen a recent increase in the number of individuals and families picking up fresh produce, canned food, and other household staples at the pantry’s regular distributions at the PUC Church. “While we can’t quantify the depth and breadth that this gift will have on the community,” said Milbert Mariano, PUC’s vice president of academic administration and academic dean. “It’s the right thing...

The night before his country was invaded, Andrey Gulko went to bed early.He and his family had returned from a business trip to the Netherlands. Back to their house with their own dishes, towels, and comfortable beds. Back to the daily routine. Back to their normal life.With three children under 10, normal life for the Gulkos was busy. They barely had time to recoup after their trip. Two days went by. It was a Wednesday and they still hadn’t unpacked.The first time he awoke was to the phone ringing. It was his neighbor, anxious and worried about the tense situation with Russia.Still groggy, Andrey put his neighbor off until the morning. There had been rumors for months, but nothing had happened yet. Andrey hung up. He closed his eyes and once again let the waves of weariness pull him back into sleep.The second time he was jolted awake by the sound of loud blasts and rattling windows. It was 4 AM. Andrey and his wife looked at each other. It was actually happening.It was happening now.In the Midst of an International CrisisAndrey and his family, along with millions of other Ukrainians, suddenly found themselves at the center of a crisis...

Students in this year’s graduating class didn’t just successfully triumph through several years of study sessions, papers, and exams. They also have the distinction of making it through a global pandemic and the threat of last year’s wildfire. The uncertainty of these events posed challenges. But they also stimulated creativity, shaped priorities, and above all fostered perseverance. Those experiences and the lessons learned from them are as indelible in the minds of the students as all of their teachers, classes, friendships, and social events. Pacific Union College’s 2022 graduates are ready now to go out and make a positive and lasting impact on the world. On Sunday, June 19, 2022, PUC celebrated its 120th graduating class at a joyous commencement ceremony. The college conferred associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees upon nearly 200 students. Diverse in its make-up, the class represents students from 13 states and five countries. Three honors students and three Maxwell Scholars were also recognized among the graduates. “Choose to live boldly and take risks,” PUC Board of Trustees chair Sandra Roberts said in her Commencement address. “Choose to be resilient. Choose to allow love to emerge. Hope to emerge.”Unique to the Class of 2022 is that it...

Additional spots will increase admittance availability for students, financially benefit university, and medically benefit the local community and beyondPacific Union College is expanding its Associate Degree in Nursing (ASN) on-campus program availability with nine additional student spots each quarter eventually totaling up to 108 new nurses added to the workforce every year. The ability to increase admittance availability to the program will allow more students the opportunity to pursue nursing, while combating the nursing shortage in the community and statewide.On average, 200 qualified students apply to the ASN program, however, with the previous spot availability, the department could only admit 81 students each year. The addition of nine spots per quarter expands that 81-spot availability to 108 total annually. PUC’s chair of the Nursing and Health Science Department Kimberly Dunker, DNP, MSN, RN, CNE, CNEcl, says every additional spot was hard fought.“Nursing programs are highly regulated by the California Board of Registered Nursing (CBRN),” Dunker says. “In order to increase the number of spots, the department had to demonstrate their adequate resources, including faculty, clinical placements, and labs to ensure the university could provide education for the additional students. This application took us six months to receive board approval.”Additionally, the...

The California Board of Registered Nursing in May gave Pacific Union College’s nursing program five-year approval, further cementing the college as one of Northern California’s top places to study nursing.In addition to meeting the requirements of WASC and other organizations, Pacific Union College’s nursing department must continually renew and be approved regularly. The BRN conducts a standard evaluation and visit of the program every five years with 2022 being the most recent.Nurse education consultants visited PUC and met with the department’s faculty and staff, student support services and administration. The formal evaluation took two days. However, preparation for the assessment took months. Kimberly Dunker, director and chair of Nursing Health and Sciences, said that because the college must continually renew, preparation for evaluation is ongoing and it involves everybody in the department. Dunker, along with Assistant Directors Debbie Wallace and Susan Bussell, prepared the self-study, which thoroughly and critically examined PUC’s entire nursing program to identify its strengths and deficiencies. It also involved planning for modifications and improvements, if necessary. In addition to clinical sites and facilities, individual faculty members and directors must be approved by the BRN in order to teach theory, clinical and lab courses, Dunker said. Faculty...

PUC’s new Paramedic to RN program has received full approval and is ready for its first cohort to begin in Fall 2022. The program is one of only a few of its kind in the state of California and will enable students with a paramedic background to continue their education and become registered nurses (RN). The program was presented to the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) during an onsite campus visit during April and granted official approval on May 17. Classes and labs for the Paramedic to RN path will be held at the college’s satellite campus in nearby Napa, California, which makes the program more accessible for commuting students. The new program also follows a non-traditional format built to accommodates busy professionals, following the successful model of PUC’s existing licensed vocational nurse (LVN) to RN program.“Classroom instruction is taught in ‘core weeks’ where students come to class Sunday to Wednesday for eight-hour days every six weeks, and 12-hour clinicals are held on Sundays,” said Debra Wallace, Associate Professor of Nursing and Director of off campus programs. “This format allows individuals to be able to pursue a professional nursing degree while continuing to work full-time, fulfill military commitments, or...

Maud Sisley. Alma McKibbon. Ruth Temple. Adventist women of firsts. Pioneers in mission, education and healthcare, they were once household names. But their stories stopped being told -- buried by time and societal change from the church’s collective memory.As Dr. Jim Wibberding, professor of applied theology and Biblical studies at Pacific Union College, studied the church archives, he discovered the names of women he’d never heard of before. Wibberding was surprised to learn that there were so many women “prominent in shaping Adventism as we know it today.”He began making a list.Starting with 50 names, Wibberding organized a course on the History of Adventist Women, dedicated to telling the stories of female leaders who shaped the church’s faith and mission. He invited 14 additional Adventist historians to be guest speakers.Choosing which women’s biographies to share proved difficult. A dilemma arose, Wibberding said, when almost every presenter had other forgotten female figures to add to the list from their own primary document research.The problem of underrepresentation of women in history is not singular to the Adventist church. Women have been overlooked throughout United States and world history. Across the globe, there are concerted efforts to fill these gaps. The first step...