Like most kids in the West Texas towns he once called home – Paducah, Matador, Abernathy – Terry Smith was intrigued by various aircraft that passed overhead. What set him apart is that his curiosity about planes never waned.

Smith’s desire to fully fathom the upkeep and precision necessary to keep those flying machines aloft and humming optimally became a full-fledged passion and led him to launch a long and successful career in aviation maintenance technology.

“Officer Buckle and Gloria” is an award-winning book that has charmed little kids for years, but when a real-life police officer reads the story about Gloria the police dog to a class of young students they tend to become downright riveted.

Through an outreach program dubbed Books & Badges, officers from the Amarillo College Police Department (ACPD) have been reading that book and others to enthusiastic young audiences comprised so far of pre-k, kindergarten and first-grade students at Hamlet Elementary School.

If a literature class that focuses solely on the short stories of celebrated author George Saunders piques your interest, then knowing the award-winning writer is planning to visit the class to conduct an in-person Q&A should be doubly alluring.

That’s exactly what’s in store for students who enroll in ENGL—2341 Selected Studies in Literature, a unique class being taught next spring at Amarillo College by Dr. Chris Hudson, assistant professor of English, who in addition to creating the course has dubbed it “Precarious Realism: George Saunders and the Contemporary Short Story.”

A cherished Amarillo College tradition that was interrupted by the pandemic will be revived in a big way when four outstanding individuals receive AC's Distinguished Alumni Award, which was last presented in 2019.

The honorees are Dr. Pablo Diaz-Esquivel, Dr. Clint Esler, Mr. Matt Griffith, and Dr. Paul Matney, who not only attended the College as a freshman but went on to serve as its president from 2009-2014.

The Academic Success Division at Amarillo College is pleased to announce that it has been named a fully certified tutor-training program by the internationally recognized College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA).

As a result, all Academic Success Centers across five AC campuses are staffed by CRLA certified peer and professional tutors.

Dr. Asanga Ranasinghe, Distinguished Research Scientist at Amarillo College, and Lisa Soper, instructional designer at AC’s Center for Teaching & Learning, soon will present findings of their collaborative research at a conference in Spain.

Ranasinghe and Soper have been invited to the 26th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL) Sept. 26-29 in Madrid, where they will share the results of a study they conducted at AC on the viability of virtual science labs.

Last fall, FirstBank Southwest made the largest gift in its history when President and CEO Andy Marshall announced a $3 million commitment to Amarillo College, establishing the Bank as “Founding Sponsor” of AC’s resurgent intercollegiate athletics program.

In recognition of that generosity in 2022, AC named its freshly renovated athletics facility FirstBank Southwest Center; but to further honor the bank and the man at its helm, the AC Foundation in 2023 has named FirstBank Southwest as the recipient of its yearly Chairman’s Award.

Amarillo College has received a grant that positions AC to acquire cutting-edge equipment essential to the redesign of its Industrial Technology program into an Advanced Manufacturing pathway that includes a specialization in automation.

AC was presented with a $346,340 Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) Grant by leadership of the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) during a ceremony on Sept. 14 at Frank Phillips College (FPC), which also received a grant.

René West and Mark Penland have been creating collages ever since they could hold scissors, but on their present-day digital odyssey they don’t need scissors.

West, associate professor of photography at Amarillo College (AC), and Penland, a freelance photographer and photography lab manager at Tarrant County College’s Northeast Campus, are now creating art with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The Amarillo College Construction Technology Program is pleased to announce that one of its talented students, Jacques Rukundo, has received a $2,000 academic scholarship from the Texas Builders Foundation.

Rukundo, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is in his second year as a construction technology major at AC. Married and the father of five children, he will receive the monetary award in two increments – $1,000 for the fall 2023 semester, and $1,000 for the spring 2024 semester.

Once again, the Machining Technology Program at Amarillo College has produced a student who has been accepted into the prestigious two-year machinist apprenticeship program at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Travis Johnson, 20, will graduate from AC in December with an associate degree in advanced machining technology. But the Canyon High School product will not have to wait that long to begin his career-building adventure; his apprenticeship through LANL’s Machinist Pipeline Program (MPP) begins Sept. 25.

Amarillo College Athletic Director Mark White has announced a restructuring of the Athletic Department’s administration, including a pair of internal promotions and a change in leadership.

Badger cross country coach Sean Hargrove is set to become Amarillo College’s new athletic director on Jan. 1, 2024, effectively concluding White’s successful three-year tenure as AD.

The Amarillo College Music Department is pleased to announce its schedule for the 2023-24 Art Force Piano Series, a lineup of compelling musical events to be alternately performed by accomplished guest artists and AC faculty members.

The Piano Series, sponsored by Art Force Amarillo, will feature four hourlong concerts over a seven-month span, and all are free and open to the public.

Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart resigned today after nine highly successful years as president of Amarillo College. His letter of resignation is effective Sept. 30, after which he plans to move into a new role as chancellor of the Austin Community College District.

“Leading Amarillo College these many years has been my greatest personal honor,” an emotional Lowery-Hart said. “AC will be forever locked in my heart.”

Zeinab Ali is a December 2022 graduate of the nursing program at Amarillo College (AC) who works full time in the medical-surgical unit at Northwest Texas Hospital. She also tutors aspiring nurses part time on AC’s West Campus.

From the outside looking in, hers is yet another heartening, albeit not uncommon, success story authored by what is, according to the Aspen Institute for Community College Excellence, the finest community college in the land.

Amarillo College (AC) Regents responded proactively and with dispatch to the news on July 24th that AC President Russell Lowery-Hart has been named sole finalist for the chancellorship of the Austin Community College (ACC) District.

The next day (July 25), AC’s Board of Regents conducted a special meeting to begin laying the groundwork for a potential presidential transition at AC, a contingency plan that includes the appointment of an interim president, should the need arise.

Amarillo College has launched a unique employee-training partnership with ASCO Equipment that gives ASCO employees the opportunity to earn Level I certificates in diesel technology without leaving their workplace to do so.

ASCO is a provider of heavy construction and material-handling equipment throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern New Mexico. The partnership, which involves a 16-week course of study, is initially being piloted at 8 of ASCO’s 27 locations in accordance with the College’s work-based earn-and-learn model.

Having some form of elected student leadership has been a time-honored Amarillo College tradition since its very founding in 1929.

Yet throughout its many iterations, from Class Officers at the outset, to Student Council in the mid-1900s, to the Student Government Association (SGA) of today, there has never been an all-female leadership team on record – until now.

The Amarillo College Board of Regents unanimously agreed to contribute $50,000 in earned interest from AC’s MacKenzie Scott endowment to the Panhandle Disaster Relief Fund administered by the Amarillo Area Foundation.

Regents, who expressed concern for those affected by recent floods and tornadoes across the Texas Panhandle region, voted on the measure at their regularly scheduled meeting on June 27.

One of two students who in April were tabbed to represent Amarillo College in the SkillsUSA Texas Ambassador Fellowship Program, just received an additional award, one of only four presented to SkillsUSA members nationwide.

Brandon Martinez, a construction technology major, is the recipient of a prestigious $1,300 Leverage Scholarship, funds generously contributed by Robert L. Flint, a former Caterpillar executive and longtime SkillsUSA supporter.