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News

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.



  • This event is designed to empower and connect all students with first-generation professionals as they share how they landed their first jobs.

    Apr 21, 2025

    The Center for Student Success and the Center for Career and Calling are co-sponsoring the First-Generation Career Panel on Wednesday, April 23, 3–4 p.m. in the Emerson Hall lounge. This inspiring event is designed to empower and connect all students with first-generation professionals as they share how they landed their first jobs and how they navigate the professional world.

  • Apr 21, 2025

    USRowing announced its annual awards as selected by its Board of Directors with ºù«ÍÞÊÓÆµ women's rowing head coach Caitlin McClain being named the recipient of the Ernestine Bayer Award.

    The Ernestine Bayer Award recognizes outstanding contributions to women's rowing and/or to an outstanding woman in rowing. McClain certainly fits the criteria after incredible accomplishments with the Falcons and the USRowing U19 national team in 2024.

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  • Apr 8, 2025

    For siblings Charmy and Purav Raj, the journey to ºù«ÍÞÊÓÆµ has been one defined by love, shared purpose, and a passion for numbers. Raised in the bustling city of Surat, Gujarat, India, in a family that championed hard work, honesty, and continuous learning, the brother-sister duo grew up more like best friends than typical siblings. With only two years between them, they spent their childhood side by side — studying, playing, and dreaming together under the watchful eyes of their supportive parents and older brother.

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  • Six sociology students were invited to share their research at the recent Pacific Sociological Association conference.

    Apr 8, 2025

    Associate Professor of Sociology Raphael Mondesir accompanied six undergraduate students who were invited to share their research projects at the Pacific Sociological Association (PSA) annual conference in San Francisco, March 28–29.

    Learn more.

  • Mar 28, 2025

    Little did Esther Smith know that stepping foot onto the SPU campus would lead to a turning point in her spiritual journey. She also would never have imagined that signing up for a student club as a freshman would lead to her current position as president of SPU’s student government. .

  • Plan to attend this unique business pitch event designed to encourage SPU students from a variety of majors to develop entrepreneurial projects with social impact.

    Mar 19, 2025

    The Social Venture Plan Competition (SVPC) asks teams of students from diverse disciplines to develop an entrepreneurial project that addresses dual bottom lines: social and financial. Participants tackle challenging social issues while proposing innovative ways to provide sustainable funding for their solutions through a business activity.

    Businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and other community partners evaluate and score the plans, after which competitors pitch their projects to faculty, staff, students, and judges at a live trade-show display event on the SPU campus. The teams with the highest cumulative scores from the two phases of the competition win cash prizes.

    Wednesday, April 16
    2–6 p.m.
    Upper Gwinn Commons

  • Mar 12, 2025

    Registration is open for summer camps in youth soccer, basketball, running, volleyball, and rowing. .

  • Learn about two new science majors — data science and biomedical engineering — beginning Autumn Quarter 2025.

    Mar 11, 2025

    Beginning Autumn Quarter 2025, Seattle Pacific will offer two new academic programs in the sciences. 

    The data science (BS) program will equip students with the mathematical, statistical, and computational skills needed to extract meaningful insights from data. Through hands-on learning and ethical inquiry, students prepare for careers in data-driven industries, applying their expertise across diverse fields.

    The biomedical engineering (BS) program blends engineering with biology and health sciences to prepare students for a hands-on, interdisciplinary career. This degree also prepares students to design cutting-edge biomedical devices while earning both a biomedical engineering degree and an ABET-accredited general ngineering degree.

  • Mar 8, 2025

    The field is set for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championships March 6-8 at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington. The Falcons advanced to the finals and will play Saturday, March 8.

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  • "A Scientist’s Reflection on Our Walking God" is the subject of a public lecture by Professor of Biology Cara Wall-Scheffler on April 8.

    Mar 6, 2025

    "The Role of the Body in a Digital Age: A Scientist’s Reflection on Our Walking God" is the title of public lecture on Tuesday, April 8, by SPU Professor of Biology and biological anthropologist Cara Wall-Scheffler. She will explore how studying bipedalism (walking on two legs) helps us understand our own humanity, in addition to providing some nuanced framing for Biblical narratives that specifically report on wallking. She will also investigate stories of God walking and what that means for Christian theology.

    The annual Winifred E. Weter Faculty Award Lecture for Meritorious Scholarship, delivered each year by a selected SPU faculty member, provides a public platform in which the claims of the liberal arts in the Christian university are espoused.

    Winifred E. Weter Faculty Award Lecture for Meritorious Scholarship
    Tuesday, April 8, 7 p.m.
    Upper Gwinn Commons
    Light refreshments will be served.
    Free and open to the public. 

Holistic Health Care in the Rainier Valley

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

What Makes Us Moral?

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.