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.
Identify a challenging social issue. Invent a business to help solve it while providing a sustainable revenue. Impossible you say? Not to more than 100 students competing in Seattle Pacific University’s annual Social Venture Plan Competition on Wednesday, April 19. The event is open to the public.
Now in its 17th year, the competition features entrepreneurial projects presented by student teams addressing social issues through sustainable business models. Businesspeople, entrepreneurs, and other community partners evaluate and score the plans. Competitors pitch their projects similar to a live trade-show event to compete for cash prizes.
Wednesday, April 19
2–6 p.m.
Upper Gwinn Commons
A group of living kidney donors climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for kidney donations.
FOR TWO YEARS, BOBBY MCLAUGHLIN ’89 planned and prepared to scale Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. McLaughlin, who donated a kidney in 2019, dreamed of summiting the tallest mountain on the African continent with a group of organ donors to show the world what a living kidney donor can still do.
You're invited to a free performance about the life of Michael Faraday, a 19th-century scientist who made significant discoveries in physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering.
Saturday, April 1, 7 p.m. at McKinley Hall on campus.
Every year, more than 200 students transfer to Seattle Pacific University. Sometimes it’s a geographical or financial decision, or students are hoping to transfer from a community college to a four-year institution. Whatever the reasons, we’d love to welcome you to SPU, where we hope you will thrive academically and where we can connect you with our transfer-friendly community!
Here are some of the most common questions students have about transferring to SPU.
George Scranton, professor emeritus of theater, taught at Seattle Pacific for more than four decades. He has written or adapted a dozen plays, five of which received national awards. He enjoyed an academic and professional acting career and directed more than 90 plays in both educational and professional venues. Yet one of George’s most exciting achievements involves the hospitality he and his wife shared with both SPU and the local theatre community.
George talks about his teaching career and hospitality ministry in the latest SPU Voices podcast. Listen now or read the transcript.
Join us Wednesday, April 5, for Seattle Pacific University’s Giving Day – an annual fundraising event to raise support for the areas and programs at SPU you love. Help us go all in for student success on Giving Day! Make sure to check back here for updates as Giving Day approaches.
Danni Gheleva, associate professor of food and nutrition, was featured on the "Healthier Together" segment of local TV station FOX 13 Seattle. Danni talked about the Mediterranean Diet. Watch the story online.
April 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq. The 2003 Iraq War was a major turning point in changing the ways that Iraqis related to their own government and to their fellow citizens. Paying attention to Iraqis' stories about their lives under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and during the tumultuous two decades that followed his fall sheds light on the forces that can unify or divide a society during periods of crisis and upheaval.
For the annual Weter Lecture, Assistant Professor of History Alissa Walter will talk about stories and perspectives 20 years after the Iraq War. The lecture is Tuesday, April 11, 7–8:30 p.m. in Upper Gwinn Commons and is free, open to the public, and will be livestreamed.
Works by students in Assistant Professor of Art Alison Stigora’s sculpture studio class are now on display in the Ames Library. The exhibit of sculptures, titled “Push and Pull,” will be on view through Thursday, Mar. 16.
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.