The Amarillo Symphony’s season-long centennial celebration continues Feb. 23-24 not only with Gustav Mahler’s soulful Fifth Symphony, but with an exciting new composition by Dr. Nathan Fryml of the Amarillo College music faculty.

Fryml, an associate professor of music who serves as director of choral activities at AC and also as director of the Amarillo Master Chorale, was commissioned by the Symphony to compose a piece for the centennial season. The result is Novae Laudis, a cantata of just over 15 minutes in duration, a euphonious blending of the Symphony and the Master Chorale.

Selected STEM majors at Amarillo College will have a chance to enhance their prospects for summer internships when they network with a number of local employers at AC’s inaugural Employability Forum.

The event, which is being piloted under the auspices of the College’s Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) STEM Grant, will transpire from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Friday, March 1 at AC’s Innovation Outpost, 1220 S. Polk St.

Over the course of a multi-faceted 43-year career as a first responder and public-safety educator, Stephen Malley seems to have checked off every major item on his professional bucket list save one – the one that drew him to Amarillo College.

Malley, who since 2021 has served as coordinator of AC’s Fire Protection Technology program, will cross that last item off his list sometime this summer, when AC opens its new and long-awaited First Responders Academy.

Nine particularly accomplished student musicians have been selected by the music faculty at Amarillo College to showcase their talents in this year’s Student Honors Recital at AC.

The recital, which is free and open to the public, will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27 at the Concert Hall Theater on the Washington Street Campus.

The ruthless schemes of a dysfunctional family emboldened by greed are laid bare in Lillian Hellman’s acclaimed play The Little Foxes, which the Amarillo College Theatre Arts Program will present four times later this month.

AC students will perform The Little Foxes Feb. 22-25 at the Experimental Theatre on the Washington Street Campus. The three-act play will begin at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22-24, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 25.

The accomplished and steadfast Amarillo College music faculty will be collectively channeling the spirit of Valentine’s Day when the 2023-2024 Art Force Piano Series resumes at Amarillo College.

The third installment of the Piano Series is titled “Jam with Love,” and it will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13 by a cavalcade of AC faculty and other special musical guests from the College’s family of musicians.

If you are a gamer at Amarillo College, Christopher George would like to make your acquaintance, but please move to the front of the line if you have a special knack for deploying palm-released biotic orbs.

Virtually, of course.

George is director of AC Badger Esports, and he invites AC students of all majors to participate in all levels of gaming – from casual to highly competitive – at AC’s state-of-the-art gaming center on the fourth floor of Parcells Hall. However, the most serious e-athletes are likely to be tasked with adding to the program’s trophy case, which presently boasts four national titles – three in Overwatch (a hotbed of biotic orbs) and one in Valorant.

The number of students achieving academic success skyrocketed in 2023 at Amarillo College, where the Fall Dean’s List contains more than 900 names for the first time in school history.

The College is pleased to announce that a total of 907 full-time students achieved classroom success worthy of placing their names on the 2023 Fall Dean’s List, a tally that easily eclipsed the previous record high of 812 students who made the list in the Fall of 2022.

Christmas was brighter than it might have been for more than 30 families from the Amarillo College workforce and student body thanks to a collaborative initiative spearheaded in December by the AC Police Department (ACPD).

The ACPD’s inaugural Christmas Initiative actually was twofold. First, AC employees provided gifts Angel-tree style for the children of fellow employees facing financial strain. In all, 52 kids in 27 families received Christmas presents from folks who work at the College. Recipient anonymity was entrusted to the Human Resources Department, which collaborated on the project.

It was a highly commendable Fall Semester for students and faculty in the Theatre Arts program at Amarillo College.

The storied AC program presented two shows during the semester – a musical called The Mad Ones, and the play Summer and Smoke – and both received high praise and commendations from regional representatives of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF).

Aaron Hutchinson, a student of photography at Tarrant County College’s Northeast Campus in Hurst, Texas, is not shy about breaking the rules of photography to bring out his inner thoughts visually.

In fact, Hutchinson’s unique images are on display now through Feb. 1 at Amarillo College’s Southern Light Gallery in an exhibition that he’s literally titled “Breaking the Rules.”

Engineers enjoy conundrums, and that may go double for Daulton Norman, a mechanical engineering major at Amarillo College, who submitted not one, but two possible solutions in the Brushwood Acre Farms Design Challenge.

One of Noman’s concepts won first place in the competition, and Brushwood Acre Farms presented him with a modest cash prize that was matched by the College at an awards ceremony today on AC’s Washington Street Campus.

When Rylee Moore enrolled at Amarillo College she had every intention of peeling away the veneer of her self-imposed obscurity, of stepping out of her reclusive “comfort zone.” It’s clear today that she definitely walked the walk.

The emancipating strides she employed, in fact, have proven to be intercontinentally momentous – every bit literally as figuratively.

Amarillo College (AC) is pleased to announce that in 2024 it will begin serving as the regional facilitator of newly state-mandated active shooter training for professional peace officers.

Officials of both AC and the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center signed a memorandum of understanding in November that establishes AC as a regional training hub.

An early 20th-century love story that stands the test of time takes center stage Dec. 7-10 when the Amarillo College Theatre Arts Program presents Summer and Smoke, a play by Tennessee Williams.

The story centers around neighbors long smitten but kept at bay by their divergent attitudes about life – one is straight-laced, the other self-indulgent. Despite each coming full circle to the other’s point of view, the chasm persists.

Amarillo College (AC) applauds the Texas Plains Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals for its selection of profoundly generous AC benefactors John and Nancy Kritser for the 2023 Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year award.

Of course, the College applauds the Kritsers themselves even more!

Plains Dairy, a leading provider of high-quality dairy products, has solidified its commitment to supporting Amarillo College and AC Athletics through a generous donation of in-kind gifts valued at $263,000.

Included in the gift is a significant supply of chocolate milk and water specifically tailored to meet the nutrient-replacement and rehydration needs of AC athletes following their rigorous workouts.

Amarillo College is pleased to announce that its Communications and Marketing Department has captured three national marketing awards  –  two at   the topmost Gold level – from a leading authority on outstanding achievements in digital marketing for education.

The prestigious accolades come courtesy of the 11th Annual Education Digital Marketing (EDM) Awards, and AC captured Gold awards in the categories of Athletic Promotion and Social Media Content–Campaign. The College additionally claimed a Silver award for its Total Digital Marketing Program.

The second installment of the 2023-24 Art Force Piano Series at Amarillo College will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 7, when a noted visiting soprano helps a member of the AC faculty introduce a new original song cycle.

French-American soprano Jazmin Black Grollemund joins Dr. Nathaniel Fryml, director of choral activities at AC, for a concert titled “Songs of the Night,” which will feature the world premiere of Fryml’s song cycle NIGHTSFALL.

Computer manipulated images meant to communicate the artist’s personal and varied experiences with epilepsy comprise a unique exhibit now on display in the Southern Light Gallery at Amarillo College.

The exhibit is called Measured Disorders and was created by Andrew Joseph Ortiz, an associate professor of art and history at the University of Texas at Arlington, who has dealt with the physical challenges of epilepsy for more than 30 years.