Three nurse educators with more than 40 combined years of full-time teaching experience at Amarillo College will be among the honorees at the 8th Annual Panhandle Great 25 Nurses ceremony.The event, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7 at the West Texas A&M University Banquet Hall, is being co-presented by the Texas Nursing Association-District 2, and the Panhandle Organization of Nurse Executives.

The Amarillo College Board of Regents on Tuesday, Oct. 22 named two finalists for the position of president, one an internal candidate, and one currently in a leadership role at a college in Florida.The two finalists are Dr. Jamelle J. Conner, vice present of student affairs at St. Petersburg College, a four-year public college in Pinellas County, Fla.; and Dr. Frank Sobey, vice president of academic affairs, at Amarillo College. 

The Common Lobby Gallery at Amarillo College will come alive for a student art show celebrating the Day of the Dead – Dia de Los Meurtos – an exhibit opening with a reception at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 31, and the public is welcome to attend.Dia de Los Merutos is a Latin American holiday honoring dead loved ones, encouraging them through their journey in the afterlife with both costumed revelry and prayer. This marks the AC Art Department’s 22nd observance of the holiday.

Selected STEM majors at Amarillo College will have a chance to enhance their prospects for summer internships and future employment when they network with a number of local employers at AC’s STEM Employability Forum. The event, which is being co-sponsored by the College’s Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) STEM Grant and AC’s Career Services, is from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, Oct. 25 at AC’s Innovation Outpost, 1220 S. Polk St.

Major renovations to the Ware Student Commons (WSC) at Amarillo College will be completed early next year, at which point specialized academic tutoring recourses – now scattered in different buildings – will be united under one roof.Additionally, Lynn Library, long a mainstay on the building’s uppermost fourth floor, will be fully redesigned and relocated to the third floor, where it will rest adjacent to the Writer’s Corner, long an occupant of Ordway Hall. And such student-centered assets as AC’s math and science testing centers and the behavioral health and wellness Counseling Center also will be moved into the WSC from other locations.

Two uniquely accomplished individuals have been selected to receive 2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards from Amarillo College.Mary Bralley, executive director for Window on a Wider World (WOWW), and award-winning music video director/producer and documentarian Michael Merriman will be the guests of honor at AC’s Distinguished Alumni Luncheon at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 16 at the Amarillo Area Foundation, 919 S. Polk St.

Exactly when and where the post-apocalyptic story of Queen Lear transpires – in the future on Earth, or in another world altogether – may be open to conjecture.But the fact that the play has been judiciously adapted from Shakespeare’s masterful drama King Lear will be readily apparent throughout its four-performance run Oct. 3-6 at Amarillo College.

Amarillo College is pleased to introduce a mix of musical and theatrical entertainment opportunities that are on tap in the year ahead that have been collectively dubbed the Keep Us Live! Arts Performance Series.The inaugural Arts Performance Series, being sponsored by Keep Us Live!, is comprised of five live performances, the first four of which are piano concerts that will replicate what has for many years been popularly known as the AC Piano Series. The Arts Performance Series will conclude on April 27, 2025 with a captivating new musical, Between the Lines, presented by AC theatre students.

Denese Skinner, interim president of Amarillo College, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Frank Sobey as vice president of academic affairs (VPAA), effective immediately.Sobey, formerly associate vice president of academic affairs, has served as interim VPAA since mid-May, when Dr. Tamara Clunis resigned from the post.

Scores of high-level community college leaders from throughout the state will have the opportunity to explore Amarillo College, reigning recipient of the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, when AC hosts the Community College Association of Texas Trustees (CCATT) Annual Conference.The three-day annual event begins at noon on Thursday, Sept. 12 and concludes at noon on Saturday, Sept. 14, and this year’s theme is Collaborative Connections: Community College Governance & K-12 Partnerships.

Amarillo College’s Child Development Lab School has done it again – received reaccreditation from the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children – and this time AC’s Hagy Center for Young Children has become a member of that exclusive club, too.After a rigorous and thorough process, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has granted its prestigious accreditation to both of the College’s early childhood-serving entities. NAEYC accreditation is achieved by less than 10 percent of all childcare centers, preschools, and kindergartens in the nation.

Amarillo College and Education Credit Union are pleased to invite the community to a celebratory ribbon-cutting and grand-opening event for ECU’s new Badger $mart Branch on AC’s Washington Street Campus.The celebration is from 3-5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27 and will feature a DJ, pizza and sodas, some giveaways, and a ceremonial ribbon-cutting that is slated to take place at 3:15 p.m. ECU’s Badger $mart Branch is located at 512 SW 22nd Ave., a block east of Washington Street and directly north of AC’s Dutton Hall.

From axe throwing and face painting to free food and engaging giveaways, National Night Out will be a welcoming celebration at Amarillo College that the whole family is sure to enjoy..The AC Police Department will host the family friendly event from 6-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6 in the Durrett Hall parking lot (on the south side of 22nd Street) on the Washington Street Campus. Ample parking will be available immediately north of 22nd Street in the campus’s largest lot of all.

For years, Bell Textron Inc., formerly known as Bell Helicopter, has supported Amarillo College (AC) and its Kids’ College by presenting educational summer camps that aim to help develop the future workforce, and that tradition continues this month at AC.

The Bell Flight Camp for area middle school students will be conducted during the week of July 15, with the first three meetings (July 15-17) in session from 1-5 p.m. on the Washington Street Campus in Room 406 of the Byrd Building. The camp’s capstone session will be on Thursday, July 18 and entails a tour of the Bell facility, followed by a visit to the Texas Air & Space Museum.

Jeff Turner, chief executive officer for the Moore County Hospital District (MCHD) since 2008, has been appointed to the Amarillo College Board of Regents in a non-voting capacity.

The College expanded its Board of Regents in 2016 to include two non-voting members to represent its branch campuses in Moore County and Hereford. At the time, AC became one of very few community colleges in Texas to extend representation to its branch campuses.

A grant from the Amarillo Area Foundation (AAF) will go a long way toward helping Amarillo College students stave off food insecurities and keep their focus on academics even if beset by unexpected expenses like when a car breaks down or a utility bill exceeds expectations.

The Amarillo College Foundation is pleased to acknowledge a generous $125,000 grant from the AAF, funds that will be used to support the College’s Advocacy and Resource Center (ARC) – particularly its Food Pantry and fulfillment of emergency aid requests.

Cash prizes will be up for grabs once again at Chalk It Up, the summertime sidewalk art contest at Amarillo College that has attracted crazy-good creations every year since its inception in 2017.

Online registration is now open for the popular annual event, which takes place Saturday, July 27 on AC’s Washington Street Campus.

Amarillo College is pleased to announce that a total of 742 full-time students attained academic excellence worthy of inclusion on the Spring 2024 Dean’s List.To be included 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 2024 are listed alphabetically.

In the mid-1990s – as gas hovered at $1.20 a gallon, Tickle Me Elmo was all the rage, and the Grateful Dead finally gave up the ghost – Dr. Jim Laughlin rolled a practice piano outdoors and gave birth to June Jazz at Amarillo College.

Almost three decades later, while much has changed, the Washington Street Campus still comes alive like clockwork on Tuesday nights in June for an outdoor concert series now aptly known as The Jim Laughlin June Jazz Series.

On any given day, Raul Zuniga, a highly motivated student worker in the Amarillo College Music Department, might be found unlocking the practice room doors at dawn and tidying up after a nighttime concert – and plenty more in between.

For the sum of his significant contributions to the department he serves, Zuniga has been chosen as AC’s 2024 Student Employee of the Year.