The Central Valley’s first summit on how faith-based organizations can address unemployment was a rousing success.

Some 123 pastors, non-profit leaders and faith-based business people attended the Work of Our Hands May 30, 2013. This was about twice the number of people expected, according to Randy White, D. Min., chief architect of the summit.

Armanti Hardesty is ready to join the next generation of teachers.

“We’re all going into a more technological age,” said Hardesty, an alumnus from Long Beach. “It’s great to have new teachers learning the best ways to help students.”

A half dozen Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary students have been accepted into the Hispanic Summer Program June 22-July 5, 2013, at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.

Elizabeth Cortez is pursuing an M.A. in marriage and family therapy, as are Monica Heredia and Cindy Hernandez. Hector Hernandez is studying for a master of divinity, Cindy Mendez for an M.A. in urban missions and Ivan Paz for an M.A. in theology.

More than 500 new Sunbirds will take flight into the Valley spring when FPU hosts commencement.

The May 4 ceremonies will be at 10:00 a.m. for 184 traditional undergraduate and 117graduate students, including 20 from Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary. Ceremonies for the 227 bachelor’s degree completion students will be at 6:00 p.m.

Our best and brightest were on display at “Transforming Lives—Stories of FPU.”

Shane Hipps looked at the Bible and how we read it during a visit to FPU.

By Christopher Cristwell 

In third grade Shane Hipps was diagnosed with dyslexia. One of his treatments involved placing a series of colored overlays and filters over his eyes to improve his brain’s ability to process visual information. Although Hipps confessed to only wearing the glasses to a “college 70s party” he uses them now as a metaphor to help people see the lenses they wear—assumptions they make—when reading the Bible.

John M. Perkins loves the young people—and has a job for them.

“This is the first generation that values difference; that sees it as an asset,” Perkins told students, faculty and staff at College Hour chapel March 15 in the Special Events Center.

Several members of the FPU music faculty were mentioned in a Fresno Bee article on the local chamber music scene.

“Chamber music charms with its intimacy,” by Donald Munro, was published February 17, 2013, on the front page of the Spotlight section. Those listed included:

Traditional undergraduate enrollment passed a milestone in the fall of 2012, surpassing 1,200 for the first time in the school’s 68-year history.

Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary enrollment also grew, from 116 in 2011 to 143 in 2012. A total of 3,460 students study at the main FPU campus and at centers in Merced, North Fresno, Visalia and Bakersfield, down from 3,603 in the fall of 2011.

Song and praise celebrated the inauguration of Pete C. Menjares, Ph.D.

Better is one day in your courts/Better is one day in your house/Better is one day in your courts/Than thousands elsewhere

“Better is One Day”—the song and the psalm that inspired it—summed up inauguration week September 24-28.

Crosswind, a student ensemble, performed the song at College Hour chapel Wednesday and the banquet Thursday. Menjares made Psalm 84 the theme of his speech at the inauguration ceremony Friday.