AC Commencement ceremonies set for 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on May 10th
Amarillo College will conduct a pair of Spring commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 10 at the Amarillo Civic Center, where as many as 1,153 spring and summer 2024 graduates will be eligible to take part in the back-to-back rites of passage.
The first ceremony begins at 3 p.m. and will be a celebration of graduates from AC’s Health Sciences, Industry, and Public Service communities.
In the 7 p.m. nightcap, graduates from the remaining career communities will be honored: Business, CIS, Creative Arts, Education, Liberal Arts, STEM and General Studies.
Eligible to participate are 966 spring graduates, along with 187 students who anticipate completing their academic requirements this summer.
Watch the Livestream here
Continuing a cherished AC tradition, each ceremony will feature a student speaker.
Vania Esparza, a construction technology major, will address her fellow graduates during the opening ceremony. Esparza, 27, is a 2014 graduate of Caprock High School who says agreeing to accompany her mother to a career exploration event at AC “was the best decision I ever made.”
Esparza had been employed as a drywall installer, mudding and taping, for about four years when she grudgingly agreed to be her mom’s plus-one at AC’s annual Women in Industry event, where the focus is on non-traditional gender careers.
“I told my mom ‘no way, it’s not for me, I don’t want to miss a day of work,’ but she kept insisting and I finally agreed to go,” Esparza said. “I mean, I’d been born and raised in Amarillo yet had no idea about what went on at Amarillo College.
“I not only couldn’t believe what I was seeing at AC, but I signed up for classes that day, didn’t even need to think about it, and I’m still in awe of how my life has changed from attending that one event.”
Esparza not only learned far more about construction than she ever thought possible, but she was one of two AC students selected to participate in the 2023 SkillsUSA Texas Ambassador Fellowship Program, a select group of only six designated ambassadors statewide, each of whom received scholarship stipends in excess of $1,000 and spoke at a national SkillsUSA event.
Additionally, she and members of her family established their own drywall company and, after serving an AC internship with Habitat for Humanity, came away with a contract to handle all of Habitat’s drywall jobs moving forward.
“AC has done so many things for me,” she said. “The awesome faculty and staff helped me grow, not just professionally but personally. And then I was picked to speak at graduation and I was very honored but also shocked – me, of all people!
“I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter what your background is or where you are from, that if you surround yourself with good people and ask for a little grace, you can make a difference in this world. If I can do it, anybody can do it.”
Carlee Garrison, 27, a business technology major who says she never had a bad class at AC, will serve as speaker for the ceremony at 7 p.m.
And why not? All Garrison has done since a Greyhound bus conveyed her from California to Amarillo – a curious 20-year-old in possession of an entrepreneurial spirit and a couple of old suitcases – is excel.
She initially visited AC in 2021 in search of a high-school equivalency (GED) credential, and today she works full time as the administrative specialist for the program that helped her obtain it: AC’s Adult Education and Literacy program.
Once she realized that her GED coursework could be seamlessly transferred to credit-bearing courses, she decided to swing for the fences.
“My very first class, I fell in love with college,” she said. “I decided right then to shoot for the stars.” In fact, the wife and mother of girls ages 3 and 5 will begin her online quest for a bachelor’s degree in business and analytics this June through Grand Canyon University.
And master degree in business administration will almost certainly be next on the agenda for Garrison, who decided upon becoming an AC student to venture into extracurricular activities, to take full advantage of the College experience, and wound up as a founding member and president of the Future Billionaires Club.
“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” she said. “When I was 11 years old I had my own business called Hard Rock Nails, where I went door to door to give manicures and pedicures to all the ladies in my neighborhood. I’ve also sold a ton of beef and meat products going door to door.”
While at AC, Garrison became a member of Alpha Beta Gamma, the international business society, and just for fun she enrolled in a continuing education dance class and became a clog dancer. Today she’s a member of a clogging group that entertains at community events and in schools and nursing homes around the area.
Garrison says she will advocate for trying new things and “reaching for the stars” when she delivers her Commencement address. “I feel very blessed and honored to get to represent AC at graduation,” she said. “It’s a dream come true.”