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, Microsoft Teams, and other tech—few had used it for everyday instruction. Virtual singing classes were soon on Brizuela’s schedule. “We were able to explore the music a little bit differently,” Brizuela says. “Last spring was definitely, ‘Let’s figure out how to make the students successful with the limited time and materials that we have.'” Students could practice research skills and sight-singing and record themselves. Essentially, activities often shunted aside when focused on concert deadlines

resembles the child his relatives once knew. Above all, David looks forward to seeing, holding and being with his mother. The two have communicated for the past 11 years, since his first year at PLU. He tracked her down through tireless research during his teen years in a Tacoma foster home. “As soon as I could I sent money to my mother so she could buy a phone,” he remembers. “That was the start of a fruitful relationship with her.” David talks to his mother two or three times per month. It’s not

the liberal arts—A basic understanding of history, language, art, religion, culture, ethics, philosophy and science is a foundation for all more specialized knowledge, c.f., PLU’s ROTC program. Learning and research within community—Nobody pursues an education alone. We were meant to collaborate with each other. It’s built into our DNA. Even an online course assumes there’s someone on the other end helping to lead and guide us while we study in front of our laptop. The intrinsic value of the whole

, the hopes and struggles of the globe enter the classroom and the hallway. We are, indeed, fortunate to have a faculty who offer their scholarly expertise to each other and to students who search for meaning in a world marked by suffering and hope. Such global awareness and commitment shapes Religion professor Samuel Torvend’s current research into how Benedictine practices with roots in the 6th century can inform contemporary efforts at sustainable living. A student author captures Dr. Torvend’s

faith as involving MacIntyre’s “fundamental conviction,” without —by equivocating on “fundamental”— leaving that faith unsupportable by evidence.  One might plausibly hold that belief in God should be basic or fundamental; but in what way? Some seem to think that this means something like “foundational,” without support from other beliefs one holds. But others suggest that it means something more like “central” —perhaps along the lines of a well-entrenched belief in a scientific research programme’s