News, Media and Stories | Spring 2021

Heidi Nielsen
There’s no telling where an art degree will take you. Just ask Heidi Nielsen ’96.
Hands on piano
We may find comfort and a restored sense of wonder in any of these forms of artistic expression.
Samantha Trulock's "Cycle"
Samantha Trulock ’14, known professionally as Sam Tru, has attracted attention for Cycle, her 2020 debut. The album made it to the second round of selection for the 2020 Grammys in the categories for Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year, for “Let Me Down Easy.”
Jeremie Murfin
When he attended Pacific, Jeremie Murfin didn’t necessarily see himself as an entrepreneur. First he was a teacher, but as opportunities emerged, he seized them, and then persevered through various business challenges and setbacks. He now finds himself as part owner of a Hillsboro, Ore.,-based music business that has thrived even during a pandemic.
Joshua Pearl
Joshua Pearl' 19 learned about the therapeutics of music in the hardest possible way: He was afflicted with an autoimmune disease that caused him severe pain. He turned to the piano as a form of treatment, and it helped lessen the need for painkillers he had been prescribed. Recognizing that music could do for others what it did for him, Pearl became a music therapist.
Dijan Ihas
From playing in Sarajevo as bombs fell to conducting in Forest Grove, Dijana Ihas's journey as a musician has been remarkable.
Melissa Lowery in a scene from Black Girl in Suburbia
Melissa Lowery has taken some of the lessons of her film, Black Girl in Suburbia, and applied them to her own life.