Borscht and Music

The graduation hubbub had barely receded when PUC’s Pro Musica (touring choir) and the PUC String Quartet embarked on a two-week music tour to Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Traveling with an Adventist Finnish tour guide and PUC professors of music LeRoy Peterson and Gennevieve Kibble, the group of musicians spent a night on a ferry boat, sang in the Rock Cathedral in Finland, and experienced some culinary culture.

Anna Lopez, senior psychology/French major, had never eaten borscht until it was served to the group at a Russian church. “It was really good,” Lopez says with some surprise. “You can’t go by looks alone!”

The group also performed at numerous Adventist schools and churches and at a camp meeting in Sweden. “By the end, our voices were pretty tired,” said Vanessa Jett, senior speech pathology major. “But the people appreciated and enjoyed all our concerts.”

In fact, local musicians even presented the PUC group and its members with original musical compositions.

Art and Tea

From Bath to Canterbury, PUC honors program students experienced “Beauty” during a four-week seminar class at Newbold College in England.

Students both read about and witnessed art presented to them by PUC professors Nancy Lecourt and Milbert Mariano, of PUC’s English and art departments, respectively. “Since we were team teaching, we tried to do everything together,” said Lecourt. “I mainly presented the written texts, while Milbert took charge of the visual art.”

The “Beauty” course was much more than a lecture seminar—the group traversed the English countryside visiting places such as Wales, Bath, Greenwich and Oxford to explore their topic of beauty.

During their excursions, the group experienced everything from tea in the pump rooms of Bath to a rainy performance of "Measure for Measure" at Shakespeare’s Grove.

“One of our best trips was to St. Paul’s Cathedral,” said Joy-Anne Mitchell, senior public relations/journalism major. “We climbed to the top of the dome and got a 360-degree view of all of London. It was one of the most clear and beautiful days.”

Students even had to create art of their own beauty. Visiting a nearby park, students created their own version of beauty using items from the environment found in the park. “We learned from each other,” said Lecourt. “We had a wonderful time learning to look really hard at art as experience and vice versa.”

Every summer, students in the honors program visit England for an instructional and applicable course. To learn more about the honors program or to see photos from their 2004 trip, visit www.puc.edu/honors.