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Greg Schneider, professor of behavioral science, enjoys celebrating rituals with good food. Every Friday, he prepares braided Jewish challah (pronounced "hala") bread for consumption that evening, when he and his family celebrate the coming of the Sabbath. Their Friday night meal also includes a special grape juice, like Navarro or Sparkling Catawba.Schneider appropriated the Friday night celebration from the orthodox Jewish tradition, where the challah bread is a standard remembrance of the temple service and table of shewbread. "I believe in the importance of ritual and tradition, and I wanted to make this part of a family ritual," he said.Schneider makes two varieties of challah bread: a milk and honey version, favored by his teenage sons, and an orange juice-cranberry version which his wife Candy prefers."The milk and honey bread is easier to make, so things often go the boys' way," said Schneider.Preparing challah bread every week involves a certain dedication, although Schneider is aided in his task by an automatic breadmaker which kneads the dough and lets it rise. "If can use a mechanical toy, men tend to get involved in things," he said. But it's up to Schneider to manually shape and braid the bread, glaze it with...

High mountains are beautiful, challenging, and often dangerous; they also have much to teach us. For 60 years, Dr. Charles Houston has climbed on the world's highest mountains, including K2, Nanda Devi, and Everest. For thirty years he has also been exploring how the body responds to a lack of oxygen, both at great altitude and during illness. Houston has authored or co-authored five books and 100 scientific papers, and he has practiced medicine all his adult life.Houston will speak in Pacific Union College's Dauphinee Auditorium at 7 p.m. Monday, April 14. In this free, illustrated lecture, he will describe some of his pioneering Himalayan climbs and high-altitude research, relating his discoveries to work and recreation at lower altitudes, and to some life threatening illnesses.Dr. Houston's presentation is the first in a series of annual lectures, called "Breakthroughs in Bioscience," to be held at Pacific Union College....

Ken Koyama will lecture about the need for alternative fuels in transportation at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 13, at Pacific Union College. Koyama is program manager for the California Energy Commission's alternative fuel vehicle demonstrations and infrastructure development program. He has general responsibility over methanol, natural gas, and electric vehicle programs and their infrastructure. The California Energy Commission oversees the largest and most diverse fleet of alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure networks in the country.Koyama's lecture is part of Pacific Union College's Joint Sciences Seminar and is the second of a series of seminars on alternative energy vehicles...

Timothy Lipman will lecture about hydrogen-fueled vehicles at Pacific Union College at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 6. Lipman is a doctoral candidate in the Environmental Policy area of emphasis in the Graduate Group in Ecology, and a post-graduate researcher at the Institute of Transportation Studies - Davis. His talk is entitled "Hydrogen-Fueled Vehicles: The Future or a Fantasy?"Lipman's lecture is part of Pacific Union College's Joint Sciences Seminar and is the second of a series of seminars on alternative energy vehicles....

A group from Pacific Union College spent their spring break building kindergarten classrooms for the Adventist school in Guamuchil, Mexico. Participants included nine students from Pacific Union College: Katty Fernandez, Leslie Giang, Vonnie Lee, Bryan Loh, Arnold Magbanua, David Self, Joni Self, Debra Teo, and Michael Wong. They were joined by four other young people: Cherish Erickson from Park Rapids, Minnesota, Stephen Kim from Sacramento, Michael Lowe from Ventura County, and Noelle Smith from Kona, Hawaii. With the students were sponsor Beverly Helmer, associate dean of women at Pacific Union College, and contractor Charles Goodwin from Middletown, California.The purpose of the mission trip was to build two large kindergarten classrooms for the Adventist school in Guamuchil, which had expanded so much since it was built in 1994 that the kindergarten classes had been forced to meet in the Adventist church across the street. During their 10-day trip, which lasted from March 20-30, the group built the cinder block walls for the classrooms and installed steel trusses for the roof. The roofing, plastering, and painting will be completed by Maranatha workers in Mexico.The mission trip was sponsored by Short-Term Missions, one of Pacific Union College's student-run outreach programs. This is the...

When you meet Media Services Director Trevor Murtagh, you can probably guess a few things about him. One is that he is skilled with electronic equipment: wherever there's a microphone, a video camera, a distance-learning television link, or a sound mixing board, Trevor is there. Another is that he's Irish: the huge red beard, blue eyes, freckles, slight accent, and interest in soccer all speak of the Emerald Isle. But unknown to many of his colleagues, Trevor Murtagh is a geneticist.It's all part of the interesting story of Trevor's upbringing in Dublin, Ireland. Growing up as one of about 30 Adventists in a country that is 98% Roman Catholic, Trevor gained an unusual perspective on the world around him and on what it means to be an Adventist. "Even though we were a small church, we never felt outside of the church," he said. "Church officials and missionary types often stopped over in Dublin on their travels, so we felt like part of the world church." But usually, if the subject of religion came up, Trevor had to be able to explain doctrinal differences to people who did not know their Bibles. "You can't just take it for granted," he...

Frances Knight, a lecturer in theology and history at the University of Wales, will present a lecture entitled "The Great Divorce: Could the Church of England and the Monarchy Stay Together Under Charles III?" The lecture begins at 7 p.m. Monday, April 21, at Pacific Union College's Dauphinee Chapel. In her talk, Knight will trace the problems of the modern Royal Family to developments which took place in the nineteenth century. In 1996 Knight published a book on the Church of England, entitled The Nineteenth-Century Church and English Society. She is a graduate of King's College, London, and received her doctorate from Cambridge University.Knight's lecture is part of Pacific Union College's Forum Lecture Series. She will answer questions from panelists and from the audience after her lecture....

Melissa Rose, an Angwin resident and an engineering technology student at Pacific Union College, was sponsored by Mitsubishi to participate in the National Design Engineering Show and Conference in Chicago. During her all expenses-paid trip, which lasted from March 9 to 13, Rose enjoyed royal treatment: a room in the Hyatt Regency, a hefty stipend, and job offers from engineering firms around the country.Rose's job at the conference involved demonstrating how Mitsubishi's 3D Pro accelerator program could speed up Microstation, a computer automated design (CAD) program by Bentley Systems. Rose also answered visiting engineers' questions about the different capabilities of Microstation."It was interesting to meet all the different engineers and talk to them, and to see all the job opportunities out there and how well my major is preparing me," said Rose, who plans to go into aerospace engineering. She especially benefitted from talking with the aerospace engineers: "They told me what people are looking for and what they expect their incoming engineers to know," she said.Rose made such a good impression on the visiting engineers that she received twelve job offers, several of which were for management positions in computer-automated design. But she wants to finish her education first....

Pacific Union College's Dramatic Arts Society is presenting Twelfth Night, a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, from May 8 to 13.The plot involves a twin brother and sister, Sebastian (Eric Ortner) and Viola (Kami Schey), who have been shipwrecked off the coast of the island of Illyria. The twins become separated, and each believes the other has drowned. Illyria is governed by Duke Orsino (Ciprian Gheorghe), who has been unsuccessfully trying to court a noblewoman, Olivia (Anna McCart).Viola decides to dress as a man in order to survive in her new found position as a single woman in a strange country. She obtains a position with Duke Orsino and is given the task of delivering the Duke's messages of love to the Lady Olivia. Viola complies, but in the course of doing so finds herself in love with the Duke. To complicate matters further, Olivia falls in love with the Duke's messenger, not knowing that he is really a woman. This sets the stage for an intriguing love triangle whose resolution will delight viewers of all ages.Sophomore Anna McCart said working on the play has been a challenge. "The language of Shakespeare is difficult to learn, but I think it...

The Pacific Union College men's volleyball team took third place at the California Pacific Conference (Cal-PAC) tournament last Thursday night, April 10. The Pioneers lost during the playoffs to the Bethany College Bruins in a short-lived match 13-15, 5-15, 13-15.The Pioneers took the lead in the first game, forcing the Bruins to call a timeout at 6-9. Strong blocking by middle hitter Steve Dulcich and setter Dorian Silva secured the Pioneers' lead at 11-8. But the Bruins came back to tie the game at 13-13. The Pioneers rallied but could not regain control, and lost the set 13-15.The second game was plagued with passing and blocking errors by the Pioneers, who made it easy for the Bruins to win, 15-5."We lost the intensity from our first game," said co-captain Scott Eastman. "Young teams tend to let errors slip into their thinking process instead of moving on, and we definitely showed that in our play."The final game looked like a comeback for the Pioneers as they led 9-6. However, the Bruins pulled a repeat performance of game one and tied the set at 13-13. Bethany middle hitter Bill Richardson served two aces for an anticlimactic end of 15-13.The Pioneers were led...