The first week of boys basketball camps started June 18 on the main FPU campus. Local elementary and high school students came to the Special Events Center to learn and practice the fundamentals of the game, taught by Sunbird coaches and players. For registration and more information on all FPU summer camps, check out: fresno.edu/summercamps

Summer camps kicked off June 18 with Junior University. About 55 students grades 2 through 8 learned about science, math and technology with hands-on classes designed to be engaging and fun. This year, 10 kids received a Karen Crozier full scholarship through the AIMS Foundation. Watch the video for an inside look. More information about FPU summer camps at fresno.edu/summercamps

Merrill and Priscilla Ewert were honored June 5 by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors for their contribtuions to FPU and the community.

The full text of the proclamation:

WHEREAS
D. Merrill Ewert, who became President of Fresno Pacific University in June 2002 after a career at Wheaton College, the University of Maryland, and Cornell University, will retire July 31, 2012; and

While students are away from the main campus for the summer, FPU is making room for a large new resident: a 400-ton centrifugal chiller that will be worth more than its weight in power savings.

Bryan Taylor, with the help of other members of the FPU family and beyond, served dinner to his neighborhood May 12. This was the first event hosted by Feed Our Streets, an organization Taylor founded to reach out to people who are everyone’s neighbors.

“God was just telling me to get out into my community and start bringing people together for conversations,” said Taylor, who is regional center information specialist at FPU. “The best place to do that seems to be the dinner table.”

A Gates Foundation scholarship winner will be part of the 2012-2013 FPU freshman class.

Alexandria Longoria, a Hanford High School senior, is among 1,000 students nationwide to receive a Gates Millennium Scholarship. The grants, underwritten by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates and wife Melinda, offer up to $20,000 per year for education as long as each student remains in school.

Fresno Pacific University has been included in the top 100 institutions for Hispanics by The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine.

Colleges and universities across the United States are ranked by degrees awarded to students from a Hispanic background earning bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Rankings are based on information from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

The desire to tell people what it means to fully experience God’s grace and the freedom of the Gospel led to a book by a professor and student.

Mark D. Baker, Ph. D., associate professor of mission and theology at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary, and his student, Kefalew Dinsa Eticha (seminary ’06) wrote Freedom Gospel (Addis Ababa: Baranna, 2011). The book is Baker’s and Eticha’s adaptation of Religious No More: Building Communitites of Grace and Freedom (InterVarsity Press, 1999), which Baker published based on his doctoral dissertation.

The many faces that make up FPU were recognized at the Night of Cultural Celebration May 4 in Ashley Auditorium on the main campus.