Acclaimed Author Minh Lê Speaks on How Stories Can Connect and Transcend
Pacific Lutheran University’s 12th annual Jolita Hylland Benson Education Lecture will take place on April 18 at 7 p.m. Acclaimed author Minh Lê will deliver this year’s Benson lecture, titled “Shelf Life: Finding Community (and Yourself) in the World of Books.” Lê will discuss the…
Full Circle: Brandi Hilliard, Director of Career, Learning & Engagement
As a first-generation college student, Brandi Hilliard was nervous when she began her studies at Pacific Lutheran University. But those uncomfortable feelings soon diminished. “I found PLU to be a warm, supportive and an intimate community, which made it an easy place to fit in,”…
Theatre Professor Amanda Sweger Finds Family in the Theatre
Like it did for so many, the theatre called to Associate Professor Amanda Sweger when she was in those awkward teen years. “For the first time, I felt accepted,” she said. Yet she quickly realized she didn’t like acting or auditioning. So, she spent a…
PLU’s Weathermon Jazz Festival to Feature Acclaimed Musician Aubrey Logan
The Pacific Lutheran University Department of Music and the Dick and Helen Weathermon Joyful Noise Endowment for Jazz Studies will host the PLU Weathermon Jazz Festival on Tuesday, March 21. The public is invited to the festival’s evening concert showcase featuring Aubrey Logan, the PLU…
Beautiful mutants: a PLU biology class harvests for the future
About two years ago, PLU professor Neva Laurie-Berry partnered with a world-class plant research center. The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Mo., sends Laurie-Berry’s BIOL 358 Plant Physiology class millet seeds with random mutations. Student teams study plants in PLU’s warm, sunny…
PLU to spend March 1 remembering Ambassador Chris Stevens and exploring international diplomacy and service
Pacific Lutheran University’s Wang Center for Global and Community Engaged Education will host the sixth biennial Ambassador Chris Stevens Celebration of Service on March 1. The celebration offers a day of events focused on international service, highlighted by a Peace Corps service panel and keynote…
PLU’s new anatomy and physiology lab is the first in a series of science upgrades
When PLU science students returned to campus in fall 2022 they were in for a surprise. The previously outdated anatomy and physiology lab in the Rieke Science Center had been transformed into a cutting-edge learning facility, complete with best-of-its-kind educational technology, thanks to contributions from…
Uncomfortable Truths: Introduction to Holocaust and Genocide Studies class examines the past to change the future
“There is nothing comfortable about studying genocide,” Beth Griech-Polelle, a Pacific Lutheran University history professor and the Kurt Mayer Chair in Holocaust Studies, says. “It’s filthy, violent, degrading, and the worst of humanity.” Yet Griech-Polelle says the study and discussion of these atrocities are crucial…
PLU’s culturally sustaining STEM program helped prepare Becca Anderson to be a dynamic teacher
PLU alumna Becca Anderson ‘19, ‘22 is in her first year teaching biology to ninth graders at Sammamish High School in Bellevue. Her classroom consists of a diverse population of students — something her recent completion of the Culturally Sustaining STEM Teacher Program at Pacific…
PLU announces Carol Sheffels Quigg Award winners
Pacific Lutheran University is pleased to announce the winners of The Carol Sheffels Quigg Award for Excellence and Innovation, established by alumna and regent Carol Quigg, whose endowment funds the awards. The Quigg Awards provide support for faculty, staff, and students who have demonstrated unusually…
Music professor Gina Gillie discussed her new composition and short film
Professor of Music Gina Gillie recently premiered her first electroacoustic music composition at Seattle Symphony’s Octave 9. Titled “Pale Blue Dot for solo horn and fixed media,” the piece is inspired by the 1991 photograph taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as well as Carl…
PLU interns combat climate change one tree at a time
A group of PLU students interning with the Tacoma Tree Foundation spent the summer increasing the number of trees in the city to reduce polluted stormwater runoff and heat during the summer months and improving the livelihoods of those who live in urban areas. The…