Area students will attempt to help fight hunger and poverty around the world through an event hosted locally by Fresno Pacific University and World Vision.

One of the pillars of the Fresno Pacific University faculty will be celebrated in “A Concert of Premieres.”

The music begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, February 24, in First Congregational Church, 2131 N. Van Ness, at the corner of Van Ness and Yale, Fresno. For more information, call the Music Office at 559-453-2267.

Larry Warkentin will be the guest of honor. Warkentin retires this spring after 40 years of service to the university, its students, the church and the community as a musician, composer and teacher. Admission is free and a reception will follow.

A new approach to teaching music will be explored at Fresno Pacific University.

Rebecca Payne Shockley will describe her method, known as “mapping,” during a seminar hosted by the FPU music department. The event begins at 1 p.m. Saturday, February 2, in room 108 of Marpeck Center on the university campus. Admission is free.

The human condition of pain, struggle and hope is the theme of an upcoming art exhibit featuring a Fresno Pacific University faculty member.

Robin Dolarian, art faculty, will show his work February 1-24 at Gallery 25, 1526 Fulton St. “Innards” is a dual exhibit with Barbara Beasley-Eggbrouwer.

Dolarian’s mixed media compositions chronicle his experiences on hemodialysis and his eventual kidney transplant. The large works are mostly brightly colored and feature found objects, simple exaggerated shapes and basic three-dimensional illusion.

The cinema comes to life at an upcoming concert hosted by Fresno Pacific University.

“Let’s Go to the Movies!” is the name and the theme of this year’s Unconcert. Showtime will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, January 25-26, in Sunnyside High School Performing Arts Theatre, 1019 S. Peach Ave.

Unconcert gives audiences a welcome break from the winter blahs and the university Concert Choir a chance to cut loose in skit and song a bit different than its usual formal fare. The choir is led by Roy Klassen, music faculty, and Robin Schwamb, student director.

The office is still at Townsend 9, but there is a new name, some new faces and a new spirit in the graduate leadership program at Fresno Pacific University.

The degree is now called the master of arts in leadership and organizational studies. (The title had been master of arts in administrative leadership, commonly known as the MAAL program.) “The new name more accurately reflects the curriculum and nature of the program,” said Director Peggy Avakian.

The next president of Fresno Pacific University plans to serve the community as well as the campus.

D. Merrill Ewert will become the university’s 10th president in July of 2002. “FPU’s vision resonates with my personal commitment to promote higher education, to strengthen communities and to build people and institutions in an increasingly pluralistic society,” he said.

One family reminded many at Fresno Pacific University of the simple truths of Christmas.

Students, faculty and staff collected and delivered food, gifts and a Christmas tree to a local family in December. The residence life staff organized the effort and Esther Klassen-Isaak, counseling coordinator, submitted the name of the family and delivered the goods. “All the work in between—and there was a lot of it—was done by the residence assistants (RAs) and particularly Laura Schaaf,” Esther said.

“Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” I Timothy 4:12

 A service where students minister to one another taps the power of peer relationships at Fresno Pacific University.

Social work study at Fresno Pacific University got a statewide spotlight when a faculty member testified before a California Assembly committee.

Donna Callahan, director of the social work program, wasn’t sure what to expect on her way to an Assembly Human Services Committee Hearing on social work education and the social worker shortage November 14. “I didn’t know until I got there why I was testifying,” she said.