President Lu Hardin shares about PBA's excellent faculty

Easter Break

The 40 days of lent are almost over and Holy Week has begun.  This, as I am sure you are already aware, is one of the most important weeks in the church calendar. I congratulate those of you who were able to keep their Lenten commitments and fast during the past 35 days up to today.  Fasting is a very powerful and meaningful experience, if done correctly and completely.  There is a lot of joy involved in this week including two of my favorite Sunday mornings.  The first being Palm Sunday, I love when the children of the church parade in with palm branches to signify the entering into the city of Jesus on that Sunday many years ago.  Then again, there is nothing quite like Easter morning.  The joy and celebration during morning worship, either at sunrise or a reasonable hour.  Altogether it is a good week.  There is, and should be, a few days of sorrow also included in the celebratory week.  Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are two of those days that remind the believer of the sacrifice of Jesus for each of us.  Remembering these two days helps to make Easter morning that much more of a celebration!

There is also another, although somewhat less important, reason why I greatly enjoy Holy Week. 

Easter Break.  Class has begun to get a little crazy and the assignments have begun to pile up all around it seems in the two weeks since Spring Break.  I know that I need some time to rest and relax before I plunge into the rest of the semester.  At Palm Beach Atlantic we are graced with two days off of school in celebration of Easter.  We get Good Friday and Easter Monday off of classes so that we can travel home to spend time with family on this most important of Sundays.  It allows for time to paint Easter eggs, or go on an egg hunt (either letting you act like a kid, or maybe just spending time with important children in your life).  Either way, the Easter Break is a vital and important part of the spring semester at PBA.  All of my friends who attend secular universities are always jealous!

PBA's FLY ON US Program

Today on campus, many prospective students and their parents can be seen walking around because of the fact that there is an Open House today.  One of the best ways for a student to know if PBA is a good fit for them is to come and visit campus.  Open House provides a glimpse into the real everyday life of a PBA student.  It allows the student to stay in the residence halls with real students and also experience the cafeteria and a chapel service.  While I was wondering around the school website I noticed a new and exciting program offered out of the admissions office.  The new incentive is called FLY ON US.  The logistics of the program are that Palm Beach Atlantic will reimburse a prospective student's airfare up to $200 for one visit to PBA.  That is a fairly large amount of money that can be put toward the cost of tuition.  This program is to encourage students to come to campus, because when they do they will surely be hooked and enroll.  The campus is beautiful and full of life, even on a day when it seems that the sky will open up in any minute and a monsoon will occur. It seems like students do not have any excuse for not visiting campus anymore and anyone who is interested should contact the admissions office and schedule a visit today.

Palm Beach International Boat Show

This weekend a huge event is coming to the waterfront in downtown West Palm Beach.  It is time for the 25th Annual Palm Beach International Boat Show.  This is one of the best boat shows in the entire country and features more than $350 Million worth of watercrafts and accessories to go along with them.  The Intracoastal Waterway is filled with boats and yachts plus a few floating islands to spend the day.  Many PBA students attend the event every year to check out everything from small inflatable boats to 150 foot mega-yachts.  Admission to the event allows you to take tours of all of the boats and just enjoy a day in the sunshine.  The event allows for PBA students to see what they can, maybe, afford if they work hard.  This is good motivation at this moment in the semester when exams and papers are piling up. Tickets are $12 online or can be purchased at the event for $14.

Bring on the Warm Weather

Spring has begun, well, it did two days ago.  I have been waiting, impatiently I might add, for this winter to end.  I do not like cold weather.  There is one exception to this rule, I can handle cold only when I am snow skiing.  It helps to have all the specialized clothing and layers.  I tolerate the cold for that week, and then want to be home in sunny Florida, hopefully on a beach.  I want to give all of you props who spend the winter up in the northern states, and when I say northern I mean Georgia and Alabama.  Everything else even farther north just seems ridiculously cold to me and I cannot even imagine an entire winter spent up in Illinois or North Dakota.  Despite a little bit of rain this morning, this has turned into a nice day in south Florida.  Much nicer than I would assume is happening in Chicago with a wind chill of 39° or even New York City for that matter, at 52°.  I am thankful that I was born in Florida but even more thankful that I decided to move south and get away from the artic cold in West Palm Beach.  I am pretty sure that no one is basking in the sun in a bathingsuit on Lake Michigan today, yet the beaches down here will be occupied.

Spring Break!

Ah, Spring Break, just saying the words would make any student happy. At PBA we just finished up our Spring Break and students are returning to campus from all around the world. The adjustment is difficult, as always. Mission Trips are a very important part of the PBA experience, and I would highly recommend taking at least one during your time in college. I went to Santa Cruz, Bolivia my freshman year and it was an experience I will never forget. Sophomore year I took a trip to Guatemala City, Guatemala with a couple friends. Junior year a couple of friends and I road tripped up to Ponce Inlet, Florida to spend the week together at the beach.

Every break I felt the need to travel somewhere to have a fun and relaxing spring break. This year, my final year, it hit me. Why would I want to leave this paradise where I live for school for spring break? The stress of travel takes away from vital beach and relaxation time. In the past PBA has charged students to remain on campus during spring break, this year they decided to drop that expense which means free housing ALL spring break right near the beach. What more could a college student ask for? I do not actually live on campus, I live with 3 roommates in a downtown condo within a mile of campus, but I would have enjoyed living on campus for the break as well.

Being that I am from the metro Orlando area, I have many friends from home who attend the large state schools in Florida. In the past, PBA has always had spring break at another week than everyone else in the state. This year was different, we lined up with mostly everyone. We also happened to line up with the college one of my roommates transferred from in Illinois. What does this mean? My condo was full of good friends the entire week. Every college student around the country dreams of spending their spring break in sunny south Florida. So I stayed here and brought old and new friends here to spend a great and tranquil spring break getting my tan on at Clarke Beach (below) and at the pool/hot tub (mid right) in my condo. If only spring break was two weeks!

Spring Break Presidential Address

Spring Break Mission Trips

Palm Beach Atlantic University senior Ashley Anderson has been to the Dominican Republic twice on mission trips, and she's headed there for a third time this weekend. "In my mind there is no better way to spend my spring break," said Anderson, 22, who is majoring in psychology and minoring in cross-cultural studies. "I love to help those in need and to serve God and my brothers and sisters in Christ." Anderson, of Bowie, Md., is co-leader of an eight-member team that leaves Friday and will spend the week in the mountain town of Peralta, where the University partners with a network of churches. In the past, team members have volunteered with construction projects, interacted with local children and led church services. "We're just trying to prepare ourselves to be flexible for whatever they have us do," said senior international business major Jeffrey Boyle, 22, the team's other co-leader from Bartlett, Ill.

Similar mission projects will take place in various countries across the Caribbean and Central and South America next week. In all, more than 100 students serving on 10 PBA mission teams will visit such places as Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, Peru and Jamaica for spring break, which runs from March 7-13.

This year, the 13-member Haiti team has received a great deal of attention in the wake of the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake in the island nation. The decision to proceed with the trip came after numerous discussions with Mission of Hope, the University's partner organization near Port-au-Prince that operates a church, school, orphanage and hospital. The students' safety was a top priority, said Christian Dzadek, the University's coordinator of interational service projects. Team members said they expect they will be helping with the relief effort to some degree, as well as assisting the organization with its ministries. The Haiti team, like the others, has undergone extensive training for the past several weeks. Students also raised their own money for the trips.

icole Valentin, one of the leaders of the seven-member Guatemala team, said her team has met once a week since November to practice the leadership activities they will be teaching at different schools there. The group is sponsored by PBA's Impact Leadership Team. "We also shared our personal testimonies with one another and discussed our motivation for the trip," said Valentin, 20, a junior accounting major from Orlando. Her co-leader, senior mathematics major Rod Venegas, 23, is a native of Guatemala City. He believes the leadership activities that his team will share with local students will benefit his homeland in years to come. The team's aim, he said, is "to plant seeds, knowing the impact it can have in the individual lives of those kids."

Sarah Thomas, 19, a freshman nursing major from Boca Raton, also is looking forward to interacting with young people this spring break. She is co-leader of a 10-person team that is departing for Cochabamba, Bolivia. The team will lend its assistance to Children's International Network, which operates an orphanage and ministers to boys on the street. "I have been very anxious to go all last semester and even more so now," said Thomas, who went on her first mission trip to Mexico at age 11. "I feel like my best self on mission trips, almost like I am fulfilling my purpose here on Earth."

Musical Theater Production: She Loves Me

During this past weekend and this week the Musical Theater department at Palm Beach Atlantic University will be putting on the production She Loves Me for their annual spring musical. The musical is based upon a book by Joe Masteroff, the song lyrics are by Sheldon Harnick and the music in the production is by Jerry Bock. This production is one of the world's most charming musicals. This little gem of a show by the creators of Fiddler on the Roof and is about two perfume shop coworkers who dislike each other, but are actually in love with each other's pen-pal persona. Based on Parfumerie by Miklos Laszlo, this story has been made into three popular movies: The Shop around the Corner with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, In the Good Old Summer Time with Van Johnson and Judy Garland, and most recently, the romantic comedy blockbuster You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It is a timeless classic that originally premiered upon Broadway in 1963 and enjoyed a reward winning revival in 1993. The original Broadway poster from the original show is pictured to the right, and two of the cast members from the PBA production are pictured to the left (Sierra Minot and Daniel Schwab). The production is excellent at PBA and one of the many perks of the university during the springtime when the annual musical comes around. I would highly recommend seeing it this week at the remaining performances in the Helen K. Persson Recital Hall in Vera Lea Rinker Hall. Tickets are $15 general admission or 2 for $25, $10 seniors 65 years and older, and only $5 for students.