Commencement usually takes a backseat to athletics when it comes to statistics, but several records were set May 4.

• 7,000 family, friends and loved ones in the audience at the two ceremonies
• 7,500 bottles of water distributed by FPU staff
• 5,000 complimentary paper fans waving in California’s Central Valley sun

And, most important:

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.

President Pete C. Menjares, Ph.D., is writing and speaking about diversity. 

Menjares was the luncheon speaker on the first day of the 17th Student Congress on Racial Reconciliation (SCORR) February 22-23, 2013, at Biola University. The title of his talk was “Kingdom Proclamation: Implications for Campus Leaders.”

We’re all works in progress, no matter where we come from or where we are today.

Ted and Joyce Smith, friends of FPU, have been honored for their generosity.

The couple received the 2012 Outstanding Philanthropist Awards from the Association of Fundraising Professionals California Valley Chapter during the organization’s annual National Philanthropy Day Luncheon, this year on November 8 in Fresno.

The AFP citation reads, in part:

The inauguration of Pete C. Menjares, Ph.D., as 11th president of FPU will bring together members of the university, academic and regional communities for a week of events September 24-28 on the main campus, 1717 S. Chestnut Ave., Fresno.

The centerpiece of the celebration will be the inauguration ceremony at 10:00 a.m. Friday, September 28, in the Special Events Center.

President Pete Menjares brought a message of hope in his first President’s Convocation.

“This university has gone through significant changes in the past five to seven years,” Menjares told a full house of students, faculty and staff August 29 in the Special Events Center on the main campus. The name of his presentation, and the theme for the academic year, is “Abounding in Hope in Times of Change.”

FPU President Pete Menjares and his wife, Virginia, met some of the neighbors at an event sponsored by City Councilman Sal Quintero.

Ted and Joyce Smith continue their life of faith by giving their home to Fresno Pacific University.
 

Pete Menjares, Ph.D., took the baton July 28 as the 11th president of Fresno Pacific University—and he’s already running at full speed.

Menjares got a literal hand-off from retiring President D. Merrill Ewert at the national convention of FPU’s sponsoring denomination, the U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, in Omaha, receiving a baton inscribed with Hebrews 12:1: “….let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”