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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Education Credit Union Foundation today made a generous and impactful gift of $500,000 to Amarillo College to establish five endowed scholarships for students in STEM fields – science, technology, engineering or math.

In honor of the gift, the College has co-branded one its primary learning spaces in its STEM Research Center and christened it the ECU Foundation STEM Lab.

Amarillo College, which is ranked the top College in the nation by the Aspen Institute, will host an Employer Summit to honor the contributions area businesses have made over the past year in support of work-based initiatives for AC students in the STEM, Business, Childcare, Education and Creative Arts fields.

Amarillo College has selected a longtime member of the faculty at its Hinkson Memorial Campus in Hereford to become the next dean of campus operations there.

Dolores Arambula, a lifelong resident of Hereford and herself a graduate of Amarillo College, has served as interim dean of the Hinkson Campus since the untimely death last January of longtime Dean Daniel Esquivel.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.