Amarillo College is pleased to announce that its Communications and Marketing Department emerged from the 10th Annual Education Digital Marketing Awards with five national collegiate marketing awards – three at the topmost Gold level.

The Education Digital Marketing (EDM) Awards are endorsed by Higher Education Marketing Report and recognize the best digital content, electronic communications, mobile media, social media and educational websites.

Although Casey Niccoli, a mass media major at Amarillo College, readily admits that a “rough second semester” had given her a mild case of the self-doubts, at no point did the notion of giving up enter the aspiring filmmaker’s mind.

“I was still struggling with learning the technical aspects of filmmaking, but I had to keep creating,” Niccoli said. “I needed more than ever to see my artistic vision come to life.”

Community colleges are not often recognized as hotbeds of academic research, but at Amarillo College, once again a finalist for the nation’s foremost community college accolade – the Aspen Prize – research is a highly tangible pursuit.

The Amarillo College Foundation recently underscored the veracity of that assertion when, in support of its ongoing comprehensive campaign Badger Bold, it made a generous $250,000 bequest to establish the inaugural Distinguished Research Scientist endowment at AC.

Any pianist would have been hard-pressed to squeeze an entire rendition of Chopin’s Minute Waltz into the fleeting interval between Dr. Bruce Lin’s arrival at Amarillo College and when he actually began powerfully impacting students.

As segues go, it was Flight-of-the-Bumblebee seamless.

Seriously though, Lin hit the ground running at AC, and there is no denying his meteoric rise since joining the music faculty in 2020; for in two short years the adroit pianist soared to the rank of assistant professor and captured the College’s most prestigious faculty accolade, the John F. Mead Faculty Excellence Award.

A significant majority of Amarillo College faculty who responded in 2022 to a job-satisfaction survey developed at Harvard University said they were not only satisfied with their workplace, but that they would choose to work at AC if they had the opportunity to make the decision all over again.

That was just some of the positive feedback generated when AC renewed its partnership with the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education through The Harvard Graduate School of Education to conduct the COACHE faculty survey. AC previously administered the COACHE survey to its full-time faculty in 2019.

The Jazz Ensemble of Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) will perform music by many well-known artists on Nov. 10 at Amarillo College, where one of the Ensemble’s proud alums has taught music for more than 30 years.

The concert, which is free and open to the public, is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10 at the Concert Hall Theater on AC’s Washington Street Campus. Opening for the SWOSU Jazz Ensemble will be AC’s own Jazz Band.

Widely known as both a musician and a magician, Igor Lipinski blends audience participation, classical music, and sleight of hand to reimagine the traditional piano recital. His unique style will be on full display Nov. 1 at Amarillo College.

Igor Lipinski’s Piano Illusions is the second installment in the 2022-23 Art Force Piano Series. It will commence at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1 at the Concert Hall Theater on AC’s Washington Street Campus. It is free and open to the public.

Join us October 27-28, 2022 at the Amarillo Civic Center, North Exhibit Hall for an interactive expo showcasing each of our nine Communities and how they align with career endorsement areas. The event is open to all high school students who are considering AC or already committed to attend in 2023.

Space is limited. Register today! See your CCMR or counselor if you need help registering.

Amarillo College is pleased to announce that it has received a $3 million gift that provides its athletics program with a “Founding Sponsor” and a prestigious name for its new home, which henceforth will be called FirstBank Southwest Center.

The highly visible FirstBank Southwest Center, which rests on the corner of Washington Street and SW 24th Avenue, is presently undergoing a massive renovation that will be completed sometime around the first of the year.

Amarillo College today launched the public phase of an ambitious $45 million fundraising campaign that supports three specific initiatives intended to transcend the College and transform the economic vitality of the region.

Badger Bold is the first comprehensive campaign in the school’s 93-year history, and the public phase follows a highly successful “quiet phase” that since 2020 has garnered $31.5 million in gifts and commitments – a full 70 percent of its goal.

The unusual two-dimensional photomontages of noted Metroplex artist Mark Penland will be on display Oct. 7-Nov. 16 at Amarillo College’s Southern Light Gallery.

Penland is a freelance photographer who serves as instructional associate in photography and photography lab manager at Tarrant County College’s Northeast Campus.

Amarillo College will conclude its observance of Hispanic Heritage Month with the presentation of a special musical project honoring the Latin American immigrant population living in the U.S.

Headliner Javier Jara and his team of collaborators will present “Our Rhythms, Our Voices” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14 at the Concert Hall Theater on AC’s Washington Street Campus.

The Amarillo College Theatre Arts Program is pleased to present a classic comedy by famed English playwright Noël Coward as its first show of the 2022-23 season.

Blithe Spirit, which is under the direction of Monty Downs, veteran instructor of theatre at AC, takes the stage for a four-day run beginning Thursday, Oct. 6 at the Experimental Theatre on the Washington Street Campus.

For the first time in its history, Amarillo College completed the crucial first step in its reaffirmation of accreditation by receiving what amounts to a perfect score for its on-site visit: zero recommendations for compliance with the 72 standards under review.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) completed its on-site visit to AC on Sept. 22. Along with offering zero recommendations, the SACSCOC committee fully endorsed the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), which is the cornerstone of AC’s reaccreditation efforts.

When his high school physics teacher veered from the problem at hand to offer a few insights on Platonism, Michael Hannen was so tantalized by the topic that he plunged forthwith into the depths of a scholarly rabbit hole and thereby discovered his life’s work.

“One day our physics teacher went off on a long digression that was basically Plato’s Allegory of the Cave,” said Hannen, program coordinator for humanities and philosophy at Amarillo College. “I’d refer to it as metaphysics today, but at the time I just thought it was the wildest thing I’d ever heard.

It was like a breath of fresh air when Amarillo College launched its Respiratory Care Program back in 1972.

Prior to the program’s inception, the city of Amarillo’s four dynamic hospitals had been compelled to recruit and import trained respiratory therapists from well beyond their service area.

But in 1972, the city’s first respiratory therapist, Gary Gerard, who had been recruited to Amarillo from New Mexico four years previously, joined with Dr. Ted Nicklaus and Bill Young to develop the program at AC.

The Hispanic Student Association (HSA) at Amarillo College will observe Hispanic Heritage Month with a trio of special events on the Washington Street Campus, the first of which is open to the community and promises fun for the whole family.

Hispanic Heritage Month is Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, and it is designed to recognize the achievements and contributions of Hispanic-American champions who have inspired others to achieve success. The 2022 theme is “Unidos: Inclusivity for a Stronger Nation.”

Caviness Beef Packers Ltd, a steadfast supporter of Amarillo College – with gifts to the College now totaling in excess of half-million dollars – has been named the recipient of the 2022 AC Foundation Chairman’s Award.

The award was announced during the AC Foundation’s 58th Annual Meeting held on Sept. 13 at the Amarillo Club.

The Amarillo College Music Department is tuning up to present an outdoor concert influenced by Latin-American music called “Fiesta Under the Stars.”

The concert, which is free and open to the public, will be from 6-7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 24 in the amphitheater and mall area south of the Music Building and the Experimental Theatre on the Washington Street Campus.

The Southern Light Gallery at Amarillo College has launched the fall semester with an exhibit featuring a variety of photographs by AC students.

The gallery is located on the first floor of the Ware Student Commons on AC’s Washington Street Campus and is free and open to the public.

The works currently on display are selections of AC student photographs previously featured in the Amarillo College/West Texas A&M University Student-Faculty Show presented earlier this year at Amarillo Museum of Art.