Seattle and Pacific Northwest

Jewel of a City

Nicknamed the Emerald City, Seattle is a major trade center, popular tourist destination, and gateway to Canada and the Pacific Rim. The city is surrounded by water and mountains, making bridges, ferryboats, and snow-capped peaks a part of everyday life.

The region is home to Microsoft, Boeing, Nintendo, Amazon.com, and many other high-tech companies. Seattle is also home to the headquarters of World Vision and the renowned Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Seattle has strong business ties and exchanges with nations such as China, Japan, Korea, and Russia.

Seattle has one of the highest live-theatre attendance per capita of any major U.S. city. Stage and music venues include the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Seattle Symphony's Benaroya Hall, and the Seattle Opera's McCaw Hall. Sports fans cheer for baseball's Seattle Mariners, football's Seattle Seahawks, and the Seattle Storm, one of the leading WNBA teams.

Combining classroom education with practical experience is often the best way to master a discipline. Seattle's urban opportunities offer students that critical link. Many SPU students have internships for businesses and organizations such as Microsoft, Boeing, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, KING TV, the Empty Space Theatre, the State Attorney General's Office, the Seattle Opera, The Children's Project, and others.

Pacific Northwest

Because of its natural assets, the Pacific Northwest offers unparalleled recreational opportunities: hiking, skiing, boating, fishing, and scuba diving, to name a few. One of the most popular ways to tour the 2,000 miles of Puget Sound shoreline is by ferryboat. Day trips from campus can lead you to waterfalls, ice caves, steam trains, totem poles, tide pools, and floating bridges.

At SPU's two island campuses, the beauty of the Pacific Northwest provides rest and research possibilities. At seaside Camp Casey on Whidbey Island, retreats and workshops are conducted in the rustic setting of a former military fort. On a 965-acre environmental preserve on Blakely Island, students study life above and below the sea.

For information on visiting national parks, visit the Mount Rainier National Park or the Olympic National Park pages. For a list of restaurants, movies, and things to do, visit www.seattle.citysearch.com.