On Gerod Strother’s watch, Amarillo College’s Automotive, Diesel, and Auto Collision programs are firing on all cylinders, and it’s no wonder: Strother, the coordinator for all three programs, is eminently qualified to lead and to teach.

Strother holds a master’s degree in transportation and logistics management from American Military University, a credential he earned during 21 impactful years of service in the U.S. armed forces. He retired from his second branch of the military in 2020, and he spent the next two years as program coordinator and automotive instructor at Texas State Technical College in Sweetwater.

The first students to complete the Construction Technology Program that Ernie Sheets launched a couple years ago at Amarillo College will cross the stage at Spring Commencement, and their mentor’s emotions will be running high.

“Sometimes I get a little teary-eyed just thinking about it,” said Sheets, who at AC coordinates construction technology and additionally serves as chairman for all the manufacturing programs. “Those students have become things they didn’t realize they could be,” – carpenters, cabinet makers, a plumber, and more.

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.

Rochelle Fouts, instructor of education at Amarillo College, stresses to her students – future educators – that they will one day be charged with ensuring that the schools where they work have maximum appeal for students of their own.

“My job is to help aspiring teachers understand it is their job, their passion, to make students want to come to school,” said Fouts, who also serves as the Education Department’s faculty program coordinator. “You have to meet students where they are and show them where they can be, encourage them to go further.

Eric Fauss admits he was not an outstanding high school student, yet he entered college with newfound vigor and swiftly became an honors student. But he faced a major dilemma, quite literally, once there: whether to major in music or history.

While notions of becoming a classical pianist happily frequented his head, it was the pursuit of history that eventually won his heart.