Life at PUC

Imagine living in a 25-foot trailer, with knowledge that at the end of the year, you’ll have to move out and somehow find a job. Citizens of Waveland, Mississippi have been surviving like this for the past seven months. Since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast last year, 75 percent of the businesses in Waveland, which is located about 30 minutes from New Orleans, have remained closed, and the lingering residents possess little hope for the future. Youth pastor Jon Cicle from the Pacific Union College Church and a group of 16 volunteers journeyed to New Orleans and Waveland during spring break to take part in continued efforts to get the Gulf states back on track. PUC student Jaylene Chung and her parents provided the crew with a nice surprise by unexpectedly joining up with them in Waveland. While most experts are estimating that clearing the devastation and rebuilding will take at least three to five years, the group of PUC students, high school students, and sponsors did their best to make a difference in the lives of some grateful families. From removing broken toilets and appliances to clearing debris washed in from massive flooding, the group worked...

PUC alumna Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson recently published her first book-length translation, Rainbow Over Hell. Currently a free-lance writer, this 1997 PUC graduate shares with English-readers the true story of a man transformed from an assassin to a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. Written by award-winning Japanese author Tsuneyuki Mohri, Rainbow Over Hell was printed by two major Japanese publishing houses in 2005 and is now available for the first time in English. Rainbow Over Hell describes Saburo Arakaki’s journey after joining a group of militants at 18 during the 1944 war in Saipan. After the final surrender of Saipan he was arrested for assassinating two men thought to be corroborating with the U.S. Air Force, and was sentenced to death. During his time in prison he discovered the Bible and was so transformed by his new faith that his own warden petitioned for his release. In 1954 Arakaki received a full pardon from President Eisenhower and returned to Japan, where he became a Seventh-day Adventist minister. Fujimoto-Johnson sees the story as valuable on two levels. “This book is historically significant as a Pacific War account, but just as importantly, it’s also a message of hope.” She adds, “It was a privilege to translate...

On March 12, Nancy Lecourt accepted the invitation of the Pacific Union College board to serve as vice president for academic administration, starting July 1, 2006. Lecourt is a professor of English at PUC. She has been teaching at the college since 1979, serving as chair of the department for ten accumulative years. Lecourt has a Ph.D. in English from the University of New Hampshire. “Dr. Lecourt has shown as a professor and department chair at PUC that she has the leadership qualities and respect from colleagues needed to make an excellent Academic Dean. She has been serving this year as the writer for the accreditation reports to our regional accrediting body showing vision as a futurist leader,” said President Richard Osborn. Lecourt will replace current academic dean Ileana Douglas, who is leaving administration to return to the classroom. Douglas has served as vice president for academic administration since 1999. Prior to coming to PUC, Douglas taught history at Atlantic Union College. Next fall, she will begin a teaching appointment in the PUC history department as a professor. The search for a new academic dean began in January. Osborn chaired the search committee along with membership of one board member,...

PUC students, faculty and staff were treated to the scholarly insights of Dr. Robert Alter, a professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California at Berkeley, for this year’s Longo Lecture. Alter has written 22 books (with more on the way) and has won prizes for his translations of scripture and for his books on the art of Biblical narrative and poetry. Alter’s talk, “An Agenda for the Literary Study of the Bible,” focused on why he believes it is important to pay attention to the literary techniques of the ancient Hebrew writers in both scholarly and personal Bible study. Alter feels that paying attention to the language, rhythms, literary allusions and patterns in the text reveals the religious motivations of the writers. “Words are the instruments through which writers shape their vision of the world,” Alter said. “When you pay attention to the literary articulation, you see what’s going on in terms of the author’s religious vision.” Alter didn’t start out with the intention of becoming a Bible translator, but 25 years ago when he accepted an assignment to write a scholarly article based on the Hebrew scriptures, he discovered all of the translations had problems....

In 10 high-energy performances from February 16 to March 5, three PUC students brought audiences a hilarious presentation of Shakespeare’s works—all condensed into a two-hour performance. Senior television & film and history major Zach Dunn, sophomore English major Caleb Rasmussen, and senior math major David Kanter formed The United Shakespeareans and took on The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), a comedy in two acts written by The Reduced Shakespeare Company. Directed by PUC alum Jim Smith and produced by Resident Artist Mei Ann Teo, Complete Works featured the three actors taking on a wide assortment of roles as they portrayed, dissected and turned upside-down such characters as Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Hamlet and a host of other classics from one of the most beloved playwrights of all time. It’s no surprise that all three of these students are more or less obsessed with Shakespeare. The skill—and endurance—with which they flew through scores of costume changes, songs, dances and a frantically paced synopsis of Hamlet was enough to verify their delight in this opportunity to present all of Shakespeare’s histories, comedies and tragedies in one performance....

For college teachers who have to fit their research endeavors around a busy teaching schedule, an endowed research professorship is a priceless opportunity. This year one of our own professors, Greg Schneider of the psychology and social work department, has been enveloped in just such an opportunity, provided by the Walter C. Utt Endowment. Even now he is engrossed in researching and writing on the history of Methodism and its influence on politics and family, following the research he presented in his influential 1993 book, The Way of the Cross Leads Home. The role of Utt professor is allowing Schneider to focus his time and energy on research and writing while teaching one class per quarter. “I realized that this would probably be the last big gift that would allow me to work on something of this scope and wanted to develop a topic that had been latent in my research and earlier book: the rise of evangelical political activity and influence,” Schneider explains. “If it weren’t for the Utt Chair this project would be dead in the water.” Awarding an endowed history professorship to a psychology and social work professor may seem a little unusual. But Schneider explains that...

Judith Pizarro is still a student, but her name has been showing up in national news. Now studying for her Ph.D. in health psychology at UC Irvine, this 1997 PUC graduate did a master’s project on Civil War veterans that is now catching the eye of the media. When Pizarro first heard about the grant from the University of Chicago for Civil War data, she thought, “This is funny—what could you do with that?” But the more she looked into it, the more she realized what a solid, accessible data source the university’s information provided. For 15 years, the National Institute of Health has funded the University of Chicago in amassing Civil War data, and the painstaking medical assessment interviews that the government did on the Civil War veterans are an invaluable resource. So with two colleagues, Pizarro set out to explore the effects of traumatic war experiences on nervous and physical disease and mortality among the veterans. Their discoveries, which indicate that post-war health was influenced by the level of military trauma experienced and the age of the soldiers, seem also to reflect the more recent experiences of Vietnam soldiers. “We don’t have access to these kinds of records...

Today’s college students may not have experienced torture, child slavery, or imprisonment for religious beliefs. But it’s happening today; and the need to help in whatever way they can has driven PUC students to establish and lead an active chapter of Amnesty International (AI) on the campus. With service and ministry options that range from World Missions to singing for shut-ins, PUC students are consistently involved in making life just a little better for people in need. But three and half years ago, students approached faculty members with the wish to address more political issues of human rights in the U.S. and internationally. The result was that PUC linked up with Amnesty International, a widely respected human rights organization started in the early ‘60s by a British lawyer and now boasting 1.8 million members worldwide. Amnesty International continues to emphasize its original focus of “forgotten prisoners”—people imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs—while expanding to tackle other human rights issues and violations of every shape and size. Members of PUC chapter of AI are working to spread information about injustice and social issues, as well as taking direct measures—mostly through writing letters—to make a difference. Student leaders run monthly meetings...

Jake Scheideman, owner of St. Helena Cyclery and an active member of the St. Helena Rotary Club, is eight years into a project that has come to include many Napa Valley residents and now, in a spontaneous contribution of almost $8,000, the students of Pacific Union College as well. During a February 16 presentation to an all-school colloquy at his alma mater, Pacific Union College, Scheideman told his story of how a bicycle store owner in the Napa Valley came to be building houses in Nicaragua. After graduating with a business degree in 1990, Scheideman took a bike trip through Central America. He fell ill in the small village of Empalme de Boaca in Nicaragua and was nursed back to health by a local family. Promising to return someday, Scheideman went home to start his career. But it wasn’t until Hurricane Mitch ravaged Honduras and Nicaragua eight years later that Scheideman found himself compelled to look up his old friends in Nicaragua. He went back to visit and soon was immersed in helping the village of Empalme de Boaca. He started with a plan for a simple baseball field, but the baseball field became a full baseball stadium—“a field of...

On December 18, the San Joaquin Country Club in Fresno, California, was bustling with friends celebrating the 90th birthday of artist and Pacific Union College professor emeritus of art Vernon Nye. His former students brought paintings, at his request; their artworks, along with several of Nye’s, leaned against the walls and the many windows in informal gallery style. Meanwhile, there was a perpetual line of friends, family members, and former students waiting to get a moment’s conversation with the hero of the event. When the convivial milling around was interrupted for a segment of speeches, PUC President Richard Osborn stood to make a special presentation to Nye. Osborn read a letter on behalf of PUC Vice President for Student Services Lisa Bissell Paulson, in which she said, “You are an absolute wonder of a man. Gifted and talented beyond compare, your life has been a gift to us all. Your beautiful and astonishing pieces have graced our homes, our calendars, our mantels...and most importantly, our lives.” Osborn then presented Mr. Nye with a special tribute, announcing that the classroom in the Rasmussen Art Gallery has been dedicated as the “Vernon Nye Lecture Hall.” The honor is certainly well placed. There...