PLNU student Emily Jenkins enjoys the view from her Alpine Ecology class taken at Au Sable’s Pacific Rim campus. Photos of more PLNU students are found below.
The Au Sable Institute is pleased to announce the addition of Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) in San Diego, California, to its family of Sustaining Partners, now a family of ten schools! PLNU is distinguished by being the first West Coast institution to become a Sustaining Partner. Sustaining Partner colleges and universities make direct financial contributions to the operation of Au Sable’s academic program, and in return receive discounted tuition, reserved course slots and special consideration in research opportunities for their students.
Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Mike Mooring, Professor of Biology and Au Sable Faculty Representative at Point Loma, PLNU students have gone from being an occasional presence in Au Sable’s college classes to one of the largest single-school constituencies of the Institute. With this growth in enrollment, Au Sable Executive Director Dr. Fred Van Dyke noted, “A Sustaining Partnership between Point Loma and Au Sable at this point makes perfect sense. With the benefit of a Partner Grant of a $500 reduction in tuition in every course taken by every Point Loma student at Au Sable, the Partner Grants alone will provide thousands of dollars of aid that will make Au Sable a more accessible and more affordable experience for PLNU students every year, and strengthen an already great environmental and biological science program at Point Loma.”
Dr. Mike Moorning (left) and students in Costa Rica.
Dr. Mooring agreed, saying, "The PLNU Department of Biology is greatly dependent on Au Sable because the Great Lakes, Pacific Rim, and other campuses become essentially OUR field stations to which we can send our students. Au Sable has become increasingly popular to both Environmental Science B.S. students (who are required to do off campus study) and Biology B.S. students who want to get specialized field course electives to boost their preparation for an environmental career. Au Sable courses do a great job of training students with advanced topics and enabling them to develop professional skills that help them to get jobs.”
Dr. Mooring added, “This past summer, PLNU sent eight students to Au Sable. In addition to students from the Biology program, the new Environmental Studies program being launched soon means that student participation from other programs will also expand and we can expect continued growth in the number of students going to Au Sable from PLNU.”
Point Loma student Dane Brizzolara, who studied in Costa Rica with Au Sable’s course in Sustainability, Tropical Agriculture and Missions, recalled, “I think promoting this program more…will provide a great opportunity to get students into hands-on learning environments where solutions to real world problems are not just talked about, but are fully engaged in as a class.”
Kaitlyn Purington, PLNU alum and now a working field naturalist, said of her Au Sable experience, “Au Sable provided me with a community of like-minded believers who challenged me to reconcile science and faith. To this day, I am still in contact with many of the students and professors that I met during my time at Au Sable.”
“Au Sable provided me with a community of like-minded believers who challenged me to reconcile science and faith. To this day, I am still in contact with many of the students and professors that I met during my time at Au Sable.”
Dr. Dianne Anderson, Professor of Biology at PLNU, added, “"I have been sold on the value of Au Sable courses for several years after I had the chance to visit the Michigan campus twice for meetings. I also had the chance to visit the campus in Washington state briefly. The specialized faculty, advanced courses, and the locations for field work are so far beyond what we can offer our students, that I would support this even if it was not in a Christian setting."
As the first U.S. West Coast Christian university to join the Sustaining Partners, the addition of Point Loma Nazarene to the Partner group underscores the fact that the Partner family is no longer just a few Christian colleges in the Midwest who happen to be close to the Institute. “Increasingly,” said Van Dyke, “we are seeing growing interest from schools across the U.S. and Canada in Au Sable generally, and the Partner program particularly, as the outcomes and accomplishments of the Au Sable college program are becoming increasingly well known and respected. Today, a number of schools in different parts of the country are engaged with us in serious discussions about the benefits of forming a Sustaining Partnership.”
With the new partnership agreement, PLNU joins a distinguished group of nine other Christian institutions including Bethel University (Minnesota), Calvin University (Michigan), Cedarville University (Ohio), Cornerstone University (Michigan), Covenant College (Georgia), North Park University (Illinois), Redeemer University College (Ontario), The King’s University (Alberta) and Trinity Western University (British Columbia).
Although more partnerships may be formed in the future, today the Au Sable Institute and community celebrate the importance of one new partnership – the addition of Point Loma Nazarene!
Dane Brizzolara, enrolled at PLNU with an International Development major and Environmental Biology minor, participated in Au Sable’s “Sustainability, Tropical Agriculture and Missions” course in Costa Rica.
Daniel Nauert (center) of PLNU studied at Au Sable’s Great Lakes campus in northern Michigan and earned a certificate in wetlands delineation.
Lizzie Diehl (second from right) graduated from PLNU in 2019 with a degree in Biology. She took four courses at Au Sable during her time at PLNU and is currently on Au Sable’s campus in Michigan participating in a 15-week Environmental Leadership Intensive.