Who Are These New Grads? $8,000 in Faculty Awards Presented by Alumni Association
Opportunity to Nominate for PLNU Alumni AwardsRecycleMania Alumni Trip to ItalySenior Women's Forum Provides Avenue for Wisdom SharingWashington Alumni: Invitation to Meet the PLNU Cabinet Members
PLNU String Quartet Wins Position in the Centrum Chamber of Music FestivalSam Cyr Claims NAIA National Golf ChampionshipPLNU Teams, Final Rankings Bill Mallory: Steps of Faith
On May 10 PLNU celebrated the dedication displayed by the 2008 Point Loma Nazarene University graduates!
535 undergraduate students and 318 graduate students crossed the stage of the Greek Amphitheater to shake the hand of President Brower and accept their diploma.
Who is this class of 2008? What are their values? What were they passionate about?
Dan Schanaker has spent his last four years diligently studying engineering physics at PLNU. His dedication has led him to a position at Trellis Ware, a small engineering company that constructs wireless communications systems such as military radios. Dan is passionate about math and science and is excited to use his skills and talent for engineering development.
PLNU Business Administration graduate Danielle Fankhouser has plans to serve in Slovenia this summer with Mission Corps through the Nazarene Church and PLNU GradWorks. Working alongside established missionaries in Slovenia, Danielle is excited about building relationships and helping to train local people to develop home churches.
Ashley Hilman will soon be departing to study at the Capern Wray Bible School in Europe. While a student at PLNU, Ashley studied mathematics and achieved her childhood aspiration of earning a pilot's license. Beginning this fall she will spend 6 months in England, 3 months in Sweden and 1 1/2 months in Austria. The Bible school's curriculum includes missionary training through service trips and Biblical studies. Ashley excitedly awaits God's direction for her future, but hopes to perhaps teach math and serve in missionary aviation.
Anita Plagge was the first PLNU graduate student to complete her thesis for the Graduate Biology program. "This program offered more than I had anticipated and was much greater than I had imagined," stated Anita. Since the program is specifically designed for working Biology teachers, Anita found it a perfect fit for completing her graduate degree while teaching kindergarten through sixth grade Biology. With a passion for students, Anita plans to teach community college in the San Diego area.
The largest three undergraduate majors at PLNU this year were:
1. Business Administration
2. Nursing
3. Psychology
The largest three graduate programs were:
1. Education
2. Business
3. Biology
PLNU students apply themselves to academics and to serving others around the world. This year the following percentages of students participated in PLNU LoveWorks trips in various countries.
Freshman: 22%
Sophomores: 25%
Juniors: 35%
Seniors: 14%
PLNU graduates of 2008 are committed to service in mind and heart.
This year four grants of $2,000 each were awarded to PLNU faculty members Dr. Senyo Adjibolosoo, Dr. Son Chae Kim, Dr. Nancy Murray and Dr. Gary Smith.
All full-time faculty members are eligible to apply for the $2,000 grants offered by the Alumni Association. Grants are awarded for curriculum development and scholarly research.
The proposals selected for funding this year were:
Professor: Dr. Senyo Adjibolosoo
Fermanian School of Business
Title: The Quest for Classical Economic Liberalism: The Significance of the Quality of the Human Factor to the Pursuit of Self-Interests
Professor: Dr. Son Chae Kim
School of Nursing
Title: Effects of Innovative Teaching Strategies on Senior Nursing Students' Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice Associated With Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)
Professor: Dr. Nancy K. Murray
Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
Title: 2008-2009 Academic Year for the Fashion & Interiors Program
Professor: Dr. Gary Smith
Department of Chemistry
Title: NMR Investigation of Tripodal Compounds as Anion Receptors for Arsenate
These awards are important to our faculty and enhance the education and experience of PLNU students. They are made possible by generous donations from you, our alums. Thank you for providing this support and encouragement to our faculty!
"Thank you very much for awarding me an Alumni Association Faculty Grant for 2008/2009. I am honored to be a recipient. The faculty is fortunate to have the opportunity to apply for grant money through this venue. A supportive alumni is a very valuable resource for our university. I feel blessed to have my proposal funded for developing three new courses in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences." - Dr. Nancy K. Murray
Do you know a PLNU graduate who is exceptionally accomplished in his or her professional field, in academia or in service to a non-profit or humanitarian organization? Someone who has diligently invested their life for others?
Each year the PLNU Alumni Association recognizes individuals for their exemplary accomplishments and their impact on the lives of others. There are two categories of awards:
1.
Alumnus of Point Loma Award (APL)
Given to recognize:
- significant and outstanding accomplishments in a profession,
academics or service through a non-profit organization
- strong Christian testimony
- significant impact on others
2.
Distinguished Achievement Award (DA)
Given to recognize:
-
a lifetime of significant and outstanding accomplishments in
a profession, academics or service through a non-profit organization
- a strong Christian testimony
- significant impact on others
APL Awards will be presented during Homecoming Chapel on Friday, November 21, 2008. Distinguished Achievement awards will be presented during The Main Event on Homecoming Saturday, November 22, 2008.
If you would like to nominate an individual for either of these awards, please send a letter of nomination addressing the criteria listed in the attachment below. To most effectively nominate, please do the following:
A. Please
DO NOT tell the individual or any of their family members that you are nominating them! (This is very important that you comply
with this request.)
B. If you are able to obtain a resume or vita for the individual (without them knowing
what it is for!), please enclose that with your letter.
C. Letters of nomination must be received by the PLNU Alumni Office by June
16, 2008.
*Criteria for awards may be found at
http://www.pointloma.edu/Alumni/Features/howtoNominate.htm You may review past award recipients at
http://www.pointloma.edu/Alumni/Features/AlumniAwards.htm Please contact Sheryl Smee at
ssmee@pointloma.edu with any questions.
Facing a record number of competitors, PLNU ranked 14th in the nation in this year's RecycleMania competition. The 400 schools competing marked the highest participation from colleges and universities ever. RecycleMania pits campuses against each other in friendly, fun, spirited competition that is all about waste reduction. Over 10 weeks the schools attempt to increase their recycling and decrease their waste. Participants report their results in pounds each week.
"PLNU changed from doing a volume-to-weight conversion to actually weighing every trash and recycle bin for 10 weeks," said Point Loma's sustainability coordinator, Kristin Hansen. "This change allowed us to have more accurate data to report."
Despite not winning the overall prize this time, Point Loma saw students rally to the call to increase their recycling. Residence halls Wiley and Nease West both boasted over 50 percent recycling rates, which means they had more recycling than trash leaving their halls.
"The students also promoted the event in a unique way," said Hansen. "The sustainability team bought used shirts from thrift stores, washed them, printed 'PLNU is proud to be green' on them, and gave them out to students. The shirts were so popular that over 100 students requested more shirts to help promote recycling."
In 2006, PLNU won the RecycleMania waste minimizations award, something Hansen is aiming to reclaim next year. She also hopes Point Loma will eventually become the grand champion of RecycleMania.
"Overall, PLNU students have done an amazing job at reducing, reusing and recycling, but there is still more that they can achieve," she said. "Aside from winning a competition, PLNU ultimately cares about creation because it is a demonstration of our love for our Creator."
Discipleship Ministries, led by director Sylvia Cortez, and the Margaret Stevenson Center for Women's Studies led by director Dr. Linda Beail, co-sponsored the fourth annual women's forum for graduating female students this spring.
The eight-session forum is designed to help prepare participants for life after graduation by designating time for questions and conversations. This provides an opportunity to dispel myths about topics such as marriage, motherhood and vocation. Each week's discussion is facilitated by faculty and staff members. Alumni serve on panels to share stories about their lives and their transition from college. Other topics addressed in this year's forum included relationships, finances, sexuality and spiritual formation. Approximately 45 to 50 students attended each session.
According to Cortez, the idea for the forum emerged out of casual conversations with students. They found that female students shared many concerns and ideas about the future and often discussed their anxieties with one another. What they lacked was a place to discuss these issues with others who already had experience dealing with questions such as how to maintain balance and make wise decisions. The senior women's forum provides a place for this to occur.
"We really want to show them the wide variety of choices they have," Cortez said. "Rather than continuing to feed common misperceptions of the trajectory that our lives 'should' take as women, we wanted to make students aware that there are a wide variety of choices to be made that impact all areas of our lives. Sometimes circumstances determine our engagement with finances, a career, marriage and motherhood. Sometimes we are able to be more in control of them. Whatever the case, the more information we have about the potential issues associated with each topic, the better able we are to make stronger and wiser choices for ourselves that in turn affect the world."
Recent alumni - women two to four years past graduation - provide an especially relevant perspective during the panel times.
"I love the women's forum," said Kaitlin Barker (05). "I loved it in college because it was this weekly safe haven where people with a little more life experience than me assuaged my post-college fears and filled me with hope. And, I loved it coming back as a so-called wise one, this time sitting where I had before gazed up in rapt attention and hoped for some life secret to be revealed. Except this time I knew that nobody has all the answers, but we still survive."
In describing the forum, Barker added, "Every story is valuable, and as Joan Didion says, 'we tell ourselves stories in order to live.' I think that's what the women's forum whittles down to: stories. There is the community of women, the questions answered and raised, the admittance of fears, the laughing, the encouragement, the coffee and chocolate - but what senior girls come to hear, and a wide array of women come to share, are stories. They emphasize the beauty of life and make it surmountable. We, as women in a room together for an hour, make it surmountable."
Alumni, current students, parents and other friends of PLNU are invited to visit with members of the university cabinet in Seattle, Washington on June 21, 2008. Please join us for a reception on the waterfront at the Bell Harbor Conference Center from 7 to 9pm.
Please R.S.V.P. to Mrs. Debi Ries via e-mail at
dreis@pointloma.edu or by phone at 619-849-2631.
PLNU students and alums Jessica Jenkins, Lisa Freed, Rachel Smyth and Peter DeChant have played together as a quartet for approximately four years. Their assiduous commitment and dedication have served them well as they have been awarded a competitive standing in this summer's Centrum Chamber Music Festival in Port Townsend, Washington.
During the week-long festival the quartet will receive instruction from various music coaches and quartets, including the Tokyo String Quartet. The group will attend workshops throughout the week and provide a performance on the final day of the festival.
Quartet member Jessica Jenkins shares, "I love performing, and my favorite setting in which to perform is with a quartet. Each of us gets to be heard, but we have to work together as a team."
The total cost for the quartet to participate in the festival is $4,500. The Associated Student Body (ASB) has gifted the music group $1,500 toward their venture, leaving $3,000 for the quartet members to raise. If you are interested in giving a gift toward the string quartet's involvement in the festival, please contact the Alumni Office at 800-478-5662 or donate online at
www.pointloma.edu/giving
Sam Cyr won the 2008 NAIA National Championship held at Indiana National Golf Course. Cyr was a model of consistency, posting rounds of 69, 70, 71 and 70 for an eight-under 280, five shots better than runner up Blake Rowe-Sleeman of British Columbia. The PLNU team took sixth place overall.
Cyr is a three-time NAIA All-American, finishing 11th at nationals as a freshman and second last year as a sophomore. Cyr is also the recipient of this season's Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicholas awards as selected by the National Golf Coaches Association.
Sam Cyr has been chosen to participate in his third international event while a member of the PLNU Sea Lions. As a freshman, he competed in the U.S.-China Friendship Cup, helping Team USA win. He was recently selected to the 12-member team that will represent the United States at the 2008 Fuji Xerox USA vs. Japan Collegiate Golf Championship in July. In September, he will represent the United States in the 2008 World University Games in Sun City, South Africa.
Baseball
Ended season with winning record of 28-23
Golf
Sixth place at Nationals
Softball Third at NAIA National Championships
50-12 record
No. 2 -ranking in NAIA
Tennis Men's = Ranked No. 13 in NAIA
11-10 overall record
Women's = Ranked No. 16 in NAIA
9-15 record
Track and Field
Women's = 11th overall at National Meet
Men's = 26th overall at National Meet
Promised Land Orchards, also known as PL Orchards, is the culmination of a journey filled with steps of faith.
Before the summer of 1976, Bill Mallory was a teacher and principal. He was well-established in his career, responsible for supervising and assessing math, science and social studies teachers in Modesto. At 48, Bill expected to teach for another seven years before retiring. He did not, however, want to be idle during retirement.
In August 1976, Bill’s friend told him about an opportunity to purchase a 25-acre almond orchard. Thinking this could be a perfect retirement fit, Bill bought the land. Within the next six weeks, more opportunities presented themselves. A friend traded Bill his 80-acre orchard with two-year-old almond trees for Bill’s summer cabin. A few weeks later, another farmer sold Bill 20 more acres of almond land. The following year, a neighbor offered him 20 more acres of farmable land, and Bill found himself the owner of 145 acres which he named Wilderness Almond Orchards.
The only obstacle to farming now was that he needed equipment. And, unfortunately, not everyone was supportive of his plans. Banks turned him away, saying he needed to farm a few years before they would lend him money. Bill was discouraged, but while he was driving Bill was given a solution by God. He could stop teaching early, take out his retirement money, and buy what he needed. It was a risky proposition.
“I could have become a pauper with no retirement for my older years,” Bill said. “But then God said to me, ‘Who do you trust more? The school district and state or Me?’ I answered, ‘Well, ok, Lord. If I trust you and you totally lead me and call the shots for my life, then let’s see what you can do!’”
For four years, Bill farmed the almond orchards successfully. He was then approached by a real estate agent who showed him a 135-acre property in the Sierra Madres – a piece of land ideal for almond farming.
“She took me to the top of the highest hill on the property,” Bill said. “I looked to the west across the San Joaquin Valley and the coastal mountain range. I looked to the south and saw the beautiful river valley that flows through Modesto and to the east I saw the majestic snow-capped mountains of the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite National Park’s Half Dome. It was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen.”
Bill felt that God was calling him and his wife, Phyllis, “out of the Wilderness and into the Promised Land.”
“Driving from this beautiful property and going home to Modesto, the Lord said to me, ‘Sell all that you have and go after the ‘Pearl of Greatest Price,’” Bill recalled.
In response, Bill paid the deposit on the property and put his ranches and home on the market. While he was waiting for everything to sell, a nut buyer offered to loan him the $200,000 he needed as a loan against his upcoming crop, which was predicted to be about 100,000 pounds.
Bill believes what happened next was a miracle. The price of almonds rose and his crop came in at nearly double what was expected: 197,000 pounds. With a profit of more than $350,000, Bill had the money he needed to purchase Promised Land Orchards and to farm the land his first year there.
But Bill’s story doesn’t end there. After building two homes (one for himself and Phyllis and one for their son, Dan, and his wife, Jill) and a farm store, the Roberts Ferry Nut Company, God began the next chapter for Bill.
At the store, Bill sold almond candies, fudge, and shakes in addition to his natural and roasted almonds. All the items were popular, but the day Bill began to sell his homemade caramel almond popcorn, customer response was dramatic. Customers urged him to begin marketing the popcorn to other stores. At first, this idea seemed inviable. Bill had no way to make the almond corn in bulk. His machine could only handle seven pounds of ingredients. The almonds, which made up a third of his blend, were heavy.
The caramel popcorn idea remained undeveloped – that is, until June 4, 1989.
“I was sitting in a restaurant, and the Lord revealed to me the idea of doubling up on the old recipe. It didn’t make any sense, but I went ahead and tried it, knowing I had nothing to lose. When I poured it out, I had the most beautiful caramel popcorn I had ever seen! The Lord told me, ‘This is the greatest gift I have ever given you. Now go!’”
In honor of his 40th wedding anniversary, which was that same day, Bill dubbed the popcorn “Heavenly Regal Blend.”
Everything soon began to fall into place. Bill took his almond popcorn to food and gift shows across the country and made contacts with people like Virginia Knotts of Knotts Berry Farm. His popcorn has been featured in the media (including on the Today Show) and can now be found for sale at Disneyland, Legoland, Sea World, the Empire State Building, 29 major airports, 15 national parks, numerous hospital gift shops, and many other stores. Major sports teams even carry the product.
“The Atlanta Braves give it in baskets to celebrities in box seats. I even made a special blend for them with half almonds and half pecans,” Bill said.
Bill also built the Almond Pavilion in Oakdale, California. With the help of a Christian architect, he created a building inspired by the features of the temple and tabernacle described in the Bible. The building has won several awards by Architectural Review Magazine and was featured in the Oakdale Chamber of Commerce Magazine. It was the success of the caramel almond popcorn that financed the building of the Almond Pavilion.
Even with all his business success, Bill’s faith and commitment to helping others has stayed at the forefront of his life. Each fall, Bill sells his popcorn at PLNU’s Homecoming, donating the profits to the Women’s Auxiliary. Phyllis, who passed away several years ago, was also dedicated to giving back to students in this way.
“I’m more passionate than ever about supporting Christian universities,” Bill said. “Young people need that Christian influence that only Christian college can give. I had some of my most enjoyable and inspirational times of my life while attending Pasadena Academy and Pasadena College.”