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PUC Theology Relocates to PUC Church to Foster Collaboration & Relationships

By Ally Romanes on October 24, 2023

After over 40 years, the theology department at 海角视频 moved this summer from the basement of Graf Hall to the church offices. The change intends to highlight the central role of PUC鈥檚 faith, be more present with the students, and collaborate better with the pastors and chaplain.聽In 1982, the department moved to the basement of the oldest dorm on campus as 鈥渁 temporary measure鈥 when the front half of Irwin Hall was torn down. Irwin Hall had been the center of campus, so a basement hallway was quite a demotion. Over the years, PUC has explored ways to put the department back at the center of campus life for practical and symbolic reasons, but nothing panned out.聽Theology faculty recognized that a larger building project could be years away, and in the meantime, they wanted to seize every moment to serve students. When Lead Pastor Nate Furness invited them to share the church office complex with the pastoral team, the move made sense.聽鈥淲e are excited to have the college theology department sharing office space with the church pastoral team,鈥 said Furness. 鈥淲e believe that working in close proximity will enhance collaboration, church ministries, and student involvement. The Holy Spirit...
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PUC is 鈥淎ll In鈥 for The 2023-2024 School Year

By Ally Romanes on October 3, 2023

Another school year has started at 海角视频.聽鈥淎ll In鈥 is the theme for this year that the Student Association has chosen. The theme reminds everyone that there is support in this PUC community and that working together can accomplish anything.聽New students were given a warm welcome on Wednesday, September 20, with coffee and pastries as they moved into their residence halls and family sessions to know what resources are available to them and their students. Pastors, faculty, staff, and the Student Association dedicated students and prayed for families at the PUC Church in the afternoon, followed by the president's welcome dinner to end an eventful day.聽Niq Ruud, director of student involvement, was in charge of running Fusion. Everything went smoothly as this was his first year running the program with the help of the Fusion leaders, who spoke highly of the incoming class.聽The Student Association organized events, such as facilitating an Olympics-style tournament between the 16 Fusion groups. Events included a tower building with uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows, a dodgeball, and a fruit-balancing race.Fusion orientation week continued with a Pioneers pancake breakfast thrown by Director of 海角视频 Hernan Granados, athletic coaches, and student-athletes before new students had a filled...
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Vivian Geow's Mission Trip

By Ally Romanes on September 27, 2023

Transformative, gratifying, and sweaty.That鈥檚 how Vivian Geow, PUC accreditation specialist & MBA program advisor, described the mission trip with ShareHim ministries to Columbia from July 26 to August 8. Geow's group consisted of 12 people- five from Yountville SDA church and seven from North Carolina. Within the two subgroups were about five young adults led by their respective home church pastors.聽Mission trips by ShareHim have participants speak at a church鈥 something Geow said she would never do. Yet, she was to deliver 11 sermons to a Spanish-speaking audience in Neiva, a bustling city of 365,000 people, 200 miles south of the capital city of Bogota.ShareHim prepared sermons for participants with an average of 65 slides in Spanish. The decision to go on this mission trip was easy for Geow. She鈥檇 never been before, and since she lives in rural South Dakota, she was excited about traveling to a new country.聽Once they arrived in Neiva, they were paired with interpreters and assigned to churches at the South Andean Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist church. They settled into a routine of sermon preparation, gathering for mealtimes, and preaching in the evenings.聽As each day passed, Geow understood what it meant to trust God....
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Chris Vance Named PUC鈥檚 2022-23 Staff Member of the Year

By Ally Romanes on August 2, 2023

In May, 海角视频 announced that Chris Vance, information technology support services operations manager, was named Staff Member of the Year. Vance was honored during an award ceremony for his tremendous work overseeing and handling the campus鈥 information technology systems. One of Vance鈥檚 strengths is his amazing communication skills鈥 all while juggling responsibilities with different departments and offices. There is no doubt this award is well-deserved.This past school year was the first time human resources recognized a staff member of the year. They planned to start this award in 2020 but got off track when COVID hit. 鈥淐hris is the perfect person to be recognized for our inaugural staff member of the year award,鈥 says Stacy Nelson, chief human resources officer. 鈥淗e has made such an impact at the College. He鈥檚 a true PUC Pioneer!鈥澛"The IT team at PUC is small but mighty. We鈥檙e deeply blessed to have Chris on our team,鈥 Nelson continues. 鈥淲hether it was COVID challenges in years past or the cyber-attacks that took place this year, Chris really stepped up and made an impact. Jim Collins, author of several leadership books says, 鈥楪reat vision without great people is irrelevant.鈥 Chris embodies this; he鈥檚 one of...
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PUC Welcomes Arturo Lopez As Campus Chaplain

By Ally Romanes on July 11, 2023

海角视频 is happy to announce that Arturo Lopez will be the new campus chaplain. Pastor Lopez is a young and seasoned pastor with amazing experience. He is energetic, enthusiastic, and thrives on making friends. You won鈥檛 find a more outgoing person.He received his B.A. in Theology from PUC in 2014 and went on to La Sierra University for his master of theology studies. From Andrews University, he obtained his M.A. in pastoral ministry and is currently earning his Doctor of Ministry.Over the past nine years, Pastor Lopez has served within the Seventh-day Adventist Central California Conference. He began as the associate/youth Pastor in Fresno and San Jose. Later, he transitioned into the role of district pastor, serving communities in Bakersfield, Taft, Salinas, and Seaside. Most recently, he was the pastor at the Monterey Bay Academy Church while also serving as the school chaplain.鈥淒uring our evaluation process, it became evident to the committee that Pastor Arturo possesses the ideal combination of academic achievements and practical experience,鈥 said Ryan Smith, PUC鈥檚 vice president of student life. 鈥淗is deep-rooted passion for engaging with and mentoring youth and young adults is palpable and aligns perfectly with the role of an outstanding chaplain....
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Winners Announced in PUC鈥檚 First High School Essay Contest

By Ally Romanes on June 9, 2023

The department of English at 海角视频 held its first annual Emerging Voices of the Pacific Union essay contest. The contest began on March 12 to high school students from Seventh-day Adventist academies or junior academies in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah.Students had until April 21 to submit a personal essay about a time they found beauty in an everyday or unexpected place. Approximately 80 entries were received and judged by PUC English professors to choose three winners.PUC is happy to congratulate and share the winners of the Emerging Voices essay contest: 1st place is Joshua Nielson, a senior from Rio Linda Academy, who wrote an essay titled Whispers of a Ghost Town about a town called Bodie and finding true beauty within the legacy of towns. Judges were greatly impressed with Nielson鈥檚 strong sense of description and place and the unusual approach he took to thinking about beauty and discovery. His work is a fantastic representation of the beauty of California, and his voice as a writer shines through. Nielsen will receive a $1000 scholarship and a $500 prize. 2nd place is Yieby Shade, a junior from San Gabriel Academy, whose essay Layered In Between is about...
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Remembering the Life of Allison Fox

By Laura Gang, Ally Romanes, and Herbert Ford on June 8, 2023

海角视频 and the Angwin community are deeply saddened by the loss of Allison Fox, PUC alum, access services librarian, and Honors program director, who passed away surrounded by her family on May 9 in Angwin, California.鈥淎llison did a fantastic job taking care of our Honors students and making sure they had a great academic experience at PUC,鈥 said Milbert Mariano, PUC vice president for academic administration and academic dean. 鈥淪he did an excellent job preparing each of our students for the life of a Christian scholar. I am proud of the work she did and know many will miss her zest for life greatly.鈥澛燜ox was born at St. Helena Hospital to Cheryl and Chuck Fox. She grew up in Angwin, along with sisters Heidi and Lizzie. She attended both PUC Elementary and PUC Preparatory Academy and was a lifelong member of the PUC Church.聽When she started college at PUC, Fox was a student worker for two years in the campus bookstore. She then worked for two more years at the Nelson Memorial Library, often in the archives with the Walter Utt collection. In 2001, she graduated from PUC with a B.A. in English. Fox moved away from her...
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PUC Film Students Win at the 2023 Sonscreen Film Festival

By Ally Romanes on May 19, 2023

Sonscreen Film Festival is an event hosted by the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for over the past 20 years. It brings together Adventist filmmakers to celebrate excellence in film, encourage new work, and has always had a strong focus on student filmmakers, with our Adventist college students being involved from the very beginning.聽Over the years, Rajeev Sigamoney, chair of the visual arts department, has attended the film festival and helped run the event. Now, he proudly takes 海角视频 students to Sonscreen every year. 鈥淭he connections and community have been deeply valuable to my artistic journey and career and I hope that it might be the same for the students,鈥 said Sigamoney. 鈥淣ot to mention, as a department, we love the time away from the campus spending time together and going deeper in our relationships.鈥滿ore than 20 PUC film students represented the college, along with professors Sigamoney and Tim de la Torre. During the festival, they attended film screenings, professional showcases, participated in a pitch competition, and attended the awards banquet. On Friday evening, PUC showcased two projects worked on by faculty and students in front of a packed house, along with the NAD. These...
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World Languages Department Redesigns Language & Culture Studies BA

By Ally Romanes on May 10, 2023

海角视频 is excited about the new interdisciplinary, customizable Language & Culture Studies BA. In the new program, students select a language emphasis plus a second area selected from a large list 鈥 or they can propose their own second emphasis.聽鈥淲e have very creative students out there who see the connection between Italian and music, but maybe also between Spanish and environmental science, for example,鈥 says Chair and Professor of World Languages Sylvia Rasi Gregorutti. 鈥淲e all love to have an individualized, 鈥榗urated,鈥 experience鈥攕o this is the equivalent in a B.A. degree!鈥漈he Language & Culture Studies B.A. includes an academic year of study abroad at a host campus, amazing trips in the tuition itself, and the degree is structured so as to be easily combined with a second major. 鈥淚 would have been so excited to have an option like this as a student鈥攕o at least now I鈥檓 able to create and offer it!鈥 shares Gregorutti.聽Since PUC is a member of the Adventist Colleges Abroad (ACA) consortium, the department offers a degree encompassing experiences at host campuses abroad where coursework is offered in Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. (ACA also offers Biblical Hebrew during a summer course...
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PUC Recognizes Student-Athletes at Awards Banquet

By Ally Romanes on May 10, 2023

Student-athletes are the penultimate students on campus in part because they have so much to juggle. If you ask Pioneers at 海角视频 what the hardest part about being a student-athlete is, they will say balancing time between school and sports. During a regular sports season, they must balance homework, class, labs, and extracurriculars鈥攁ll while honing their athletic craft with all their practices, conditioning, weightlifting, games, and travels.聽They are also leaders and are often the public face of the college more than other students. While at PUC, they鈥檝e experienced a lot of pressure to achieve, and these students have done so at very high levels. Many of PUC鈥檚 student-athletes are in the 3.5+ and 4.0 range.聽A fantastic 85% of student-athletes were awarded at the Pioneers Athlete Awards Banquet April 30 at the Angwin Fire Station. This annual awards banquet recognizes the Pioneers athletes for all their hard work throughout the year. Student-athletes receive sports-related and academic-based awards. The academic awards are for juniors and seniors; it shows that they have been able to achieve a high standing in academics, while still competing at the collegiate level.Joonsuh 鈥淏en鈥 Huh was named Presidential Scholar Athlete of the Year. As a junior...
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