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.

An Amarillo consortium, spearheaded by the Innovation Outpost and joined by Amarillo College and the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation, is still in the running for a $160 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Texas Panhandle Innovation Engine (TPIE) is among the list of 34 semifinalists just announced for the inaugural NSF Regional Innovation Engines competition (NSF Engines). This fall, five of the semifinalists will be awarded grants of up to $160 million each, spread out over 10 years.

Chalk It Up, the sidewalk art contest that traditionally unfolds at Amarillo College each final Saturday in July, once again draws near.

Registration is now open for the convivial competition that consistently elicits crazy-good creations and always awards cash prizes.

The award-winning event, collaboratively sponsored by AC and Panhandle PBS, is from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, July 29. It is free to enter, and the first 40 entries will be accepted. Please register here: info.actx.edu/chalkentry.

It should come as no surprise that Amarillo College is experiencing an upsurge in registrations for TimelyCare, the free virtual healthcare plan that's accessible to all AC academic students, their spouses, and their dependents.

For in addition to being free for everyone who uses it, the service provides high-quality, basic medical and mental healthcare 24 hours a day from licensed physicians and counselors – in multiple languages – 365 days a year from virtually any location. Participants also receive cost-saving prescription cards.

Amarillo College is pleased to announce that a total of 657 full-time students attained academic excellence worthy of placing their names on the Spring 2023 Dean’s List.

To attain inclusion on the prestigious list, students must attend AC full time and earn a grade point average of 3.6 or higher.

Students who achieved Dean’s-List status for their academic excellence in the Spring of 2023 are listed alphabetically.

Bill Young, who helped establish the Respiratory Care Program at Amarillo College, where his teaching career spanned 36 years (1972-2008), has been named Professor Emeritus.

The AC Faculty Senate will sponsor a reception in his honor from 2:30-4:30 p.m. Friday, June 2 in the 2nd Floor Gallery at the Amarillo Museum of Art on the Washington Street Campus.

Amarillo College is gearing up for the return of a favorite community tradition: Jim Laughlin June Jazz. The outdoor concert series, held on Tuesday nights in June, has been a staple of the community for nearly three decades.

This will be the 28th year for June Jazz, which commonly draws an audience of hundreds to the College and is named in honor of its founder and continuous organizer, Dr. Jim Laughlin, professor of music.

The Amarillo College dual-credit Diplomas & Degrees program has been changing the game for top-performing area high schoolers for a long time now, and it all began at Highland Park High School.

This marks the 14th year of Highland Park’s inclusion in the program that enables students to receive associate degrees from AC weeks in advance of attending their high school graduation, and Highland Park has 8 AC graduates this year.

Amarillo College will conduct a pair of Spring commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 12 at the Amarillo Civic Center, where as many as 1,104 spring and summer 2023 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.