What’s happening at SPU? This is where you’ll find the latest news about research, events, activities, achievements, and milestones in the life of SPU and its people.
The 2023 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony will take place on Saturday, June 8, 10:30 a.m., at T-Mobile Park, near downtown Seattle. Ivy Cutting and Graduate Commencement will be held on campus, Friday, June 7.
Learn more on the 2024 Commencement website.
New research by professors at Seattle Pacific and the University of Washington Bothell on teaching physics outlined how teachers implemented case studies to teach about energy and the realities of power plants. The study looked at educators who are incorporating case studies on power plants to teach students about the scientific, ethical, ecological, and cultural impacts of energy decisions.
Read the article in SciTech Daily: New Research: Energy Production Is Powered by More Than Just Physics.
The next Center for Faithful Business Coffee Talk is Thursday, February 8 with free coffee and conversation at 7 p.m. at Two Kick Coffee, 3208 Queen Anne Avenue North. Randy Franz, professor of management, will lead a discussion about how people of faith have a rich vision of what it means to be human and how that shapes the way they treat employees.
Alumna Cami Ostman began her career as an English teacher, and then after getting her master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy from SPU in 2000, worked as a therapist for 20 years. But after writing her own successful memoir and discovering the power and transformation allotted to you in writing your own story, she began a company providing writers everything they need to get their books done, The Narrative Project.
Listen or read online this SPU Voices episode.
Professor of Music Carlene Brown was invited to speak at the recent Sound Health Initiative workshop on "Music as Medicine: The Science and Clinical Practice," co-organized and co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, National Endowment for the Arts, Renée Fleming Foundation, and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The SPU Art Department is hosting visiting artist Daniel Chang, associate professor of art at Biola University, as he creates a site-specific sculptural installation titled, "I walk walking to the corner I walked" at the Seattle Pacific Art Gallery, located at 3 West Cremona. The gallery's regular hours are 9 a.m.–4 p.m., Monday-Thursday. The exhibit runs through March 8.
SPU Theatre presents, "The Old Man and the Old Moon," an imaginative musical inspired by Celtic folklore which invites us to remember from whence we have come while inviting us into a new and whimsical future. Audiences of all ages are sure to be pulled into the fun as actors swap banjos and fiddles, shadow puppets and swords, and ropes and sails as imagination takes flight.
"The Old Man and the Old Moon"
E.E. Bach Theatre, McKinley Hall
Feb. 1–3; 8–10 (All shows at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee at 2:30 p.m. on February 10.)
Buy tickets online.
Vanessa Aniteye, former Seattle Pacific track star, winner of last year's NCAA Division II women's indoor 800 meters, and a nine-time All-American, is one of the five women's nominees for the 89th annual Seattle Sports Star of the Year award.
Aniteye's status as a finalist for the women's award was announced on Jan. 15 by the Seattle Sports Commission.
The awards show is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 15 at the Westin Seattle Hotel. Former Seattle Seahawks star K.J. Wright will be the master of ceremonies.
Nominees for the women's and men's awards are athletes from across Washington who excelled during the 2023 season, and include professional and collegiate athletes with history-making achievements. They were selected by the Sports Star Nominations Committee.
In addition to the two athlete awards, the other major award to be presented is the Sports Story of the Year.
The winners will be determined by a public online vote. Fans can click on this link to access the Sports Commission's voting page. Votes are limited to one per person, and it is open from now through 11:59 p.m. next Monday, Jan. 22. At the bottom of the voting page is a chance to enter a drawing for two tickets to the awards show.
SPU's annual chapel in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be Tuesday, Jan. 16, 11:10 a.m. in First Free Methodist Church, adjacent to campus. The theme is "Tough Mind, Tender Heart," and will feature faculty, staff, and students.
"The U.S. is experiencing rising levels of homelessness, especially in West Coast cities. The most recent data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development on homelessness reported a 12% increase since last year. If we want to curb the trend toward rising homelessness, especially in West Coast cities, we must change our framing of the issue and demand accountability from our leaders to advance sound social policy."
Read more of an opinion piece by SPU Professor of Sociology Karen Snedker published in The Seattle Times on Jan. 7, 2024.
Dr. Christopher Jones ’94 hopes the families in his medical practice never need to ask: “Is my kid sick enough that I should pay for a doctor’s visit?” Medical director of HopeCentral, a nonprofit health center, he and his team have adapted the concept of concierge medicine to a diverse Seattle neighborhood.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Leland Saunders earned a $10,100 Graves Award in Humanities for his research project, “The Structure of Moral Judgement: Philosophical Perspectives.” His research responds to recent arguments that human beings’ concepts of morality are just a quirk of evolution and don't connect to anything deeper.