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June 16, 2008 Playing in the mud Outfitted in waders and armed with oranges, shallow plastic trays and pH testing kits, faculty members and alumni trudged into Clover Creek. Under the watchful guidance of environmental studies faculty, the group was learning to collect field data about the creek, which is an important watershed in this area, explained Jill Whitman, geosciences professor. It’s the same type of work students in the “Environmental Methods of Investigation” course learn to do. The

July 14, 2008 Professor coaching at Olympics again For Colleen Hacker, being on the coaching staff of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Field Hockey Team brings her professional and athletic careers full circle. It also marks the fourth time the PLU professor of movement studies and wellness has been on the coaching staff of a U.S. Olympic Team.“It really is quite exciting,” Hacker said. “One Olympic experience is rare, but this upcoming games is historic on many levels.” Field hockey is really where

September 1, 2008 Mental skills coach remembers Olympics For the last month, PLU Professor of Movement Studies and Wellness Education Colleen Hacker has worked as the mental skills coach for the U.S. women’s field hockey team at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as working with individual players on the now-gold medal winning U.S. women’s soccer team. The event has been beyond description, Hacker said in an e-mail interview from Beijing this week. But she gave a go at it anyway, in an

May 11, 2009 New endowed chair created A new endowed chair has been created in the School of Education and Movement Studies – The Jolita Hylland Benson Endowed Chair in Elementary Education honors Jolita Benson. It has been funded by Dale and Jolita Benson through The Benson Family Foundation of Portland, Ore. The inaugural appointment to the Jolita Hylland Benson Chair is Leon (Lenny) Reisberg, professor in the Department of Instructional Development and Leadership in the School of Education

May 18, 2009 The finish line The call came from Japan as Masahide Nishimura was finishing up his degree in Chinese Studies at Pacific Lutheran University a decade ago. His grandfather, Jisaburo Nishimura, 92, had had a stroke. Masahide felt he needed to come home and support his grandfather, who had raised him, and help with the family business – Kobe Toyopet Corp. – which distributes Lexus, Toyota and Volkswagen cars. This was a company started by his grandfather some 50 years earlier. “I

June 16, 2009 Matters of Faith By Patricia O’Connell Killen, Ph.D. Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Professor of Religion At PLU, students talk about spirituality. They think about the meaning of life – human experiences of love, joy, creativity, success, suffering, death, of making and keeping commitments, of extending oneself on behalf of others. Students grapple with the meaning of integrity. They seek to find a purpose, something that is, in the words of some of my former students

April 19, 2010 Claim: The jury is still out about global warming Claire Todd, Visiting Assistant Professor of Geosciences and Environmental Studies Recent events such as the snowstorms in the eastern United States have caused some to question whether or not global temperatures are increasing. To address these questions, we can turn to the instrumental temperature record, a record of temperatures measured directly by humans for the past 130 years. These measurements, made with thermometers and

May 10, 2010 Lost Boy of Sudan By Chris Albert The table in David Akuien’s South Hall apartment is covered with textbooks and worksheets, filled with meticulous notes. He sits down at the table and spends hours studying – this day it’s for an environmental studies test. David Aukien doesn’t blame or lament on the hardships he’s experienced. “It’s the card I’ve been dealt and you just have to deal with the card you’ve been dealt.” (Photos by John Froschauer) The glow of a television is behind

November 10, 2010 Reviving Confucianism By Chris Albert As part of the PLU Chinese Studies Program lecture series, Daniel A. Bell will visit campus to examine the revival of Confucianism as the moral foundation for political rule in China. Confucianism is making a comeback in Chinese debate about moral and political foundation. Below is a video with the last lecturer in the series, journalist Martin Jacques. “We stand at a moment in history where we can decide to be friendly competitors or

July 11, 2011 Erik Hammerstrom, Assistant Professor of Religion (Photo by John Froschauer) PLU prof awarded prize from Yale University By Chris Albert In late June, the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University named PLU Assistant Professor Erik Hammerstrom the Stanley Weinstein Dissertation Prize winner for the academic years of 2008-2010. “At first I was kind of surprised – there are so many great dissertations,” he said. “It’s a great honor. It fills me with a lot of confidence that