ABOUT AMARILLO COLLEGE
Amarillo College (AC) is a thriving community college that continues to garner significant national attention and enthusiastic regional support.
The College, which typically enrolls about 9,000 students at seven campuses in three Texas Panhandle counties, is currently a finalist for the country’s signature recognition of community college excellence – the Aspen Prize – and this is not AC’s first foray into that enviable national spotlight.
The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program awards the Aspen Prize biennially, and AC was not only a finalist for the preeminent award in 2021, but ultimately was designated one of the nation’s Top 5 colleges and captured Aspen’s Rising Star Award. The next Aspen Prize will be awarded in May 2023. As a finalist, AC is one of 10 schools nationwide still in the running.
AC began taking a foothold on the national landscape in 2015 when it adopted an innovative Culture of Caring. AC prioritizes student success and connects first-generation and/or academically underprepared students with social services and places them on innovative academic pathways, all structured to help them overcome barriers to success.
The College’s academic innovations are not only paying dividends for students, but one such initiative – AC’s Development Education/Corequisite Program – in December of 2022 earned what essentially is the gold standard of laurels earmarked for post-secondary schools in Texas. AC received the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s prestigious Star Award. That laurel is a testament to AC’s transformative efforts in support of the state’s strategic plan for higher education.
AC, which enjoys unflagging community support, received a major boost in May of 2019 with passage by taxpayers of an $89 million bond issue that continues to fund numerous physical improvements. Yet that is only the tip of the iceberg where the community’s financial support of the College is concerned. In October of 2022, AC launched the public phase of a $45 million comprehensive campaign called Badger Bold, and by that point in time a grand total of $31.5 million – a full 70 percent of the goal – had already been given or pledged through the campaign’s “quiet phase,’ an effort begun just one year prior to the public rollout.
Additionally, since being named an Aspen Rising Star in 2021, AC received a magnanimous gift of $15 million from author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott; became the sole community college to join a national alliance of universities called REP4 that charges students with designing education’s future; and was granted full membership in the National Junior College Athletic Association in lieu of AC’s return in 2022 to intercollegiate athletics.
With a proven blend of quality and affordability that makes Texas community colleges so appealing – approximately half of the students enrolled in higher education in Texas attend a community college – AC provides students with a solid academic foundation, whether they are looking to immediately enter the workforce or proceed to a university.
ABOUT OUR REGION
Amarillo is the largest city in the 26-county Texas Panhandle. It is located in the center of the Panhandle – which produces 30 percent of the nation’s beef – and serves as a crossroads on Interstate 40 for travelers between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque, and a mid-point for Dallas-to-Denver traffic, as well.
Amarillo has just shy of 200,000 residents, while the Amarillo metropolitan area has a population of about 255,000. The city’s central location makes it the region’s natural hub for healthcare services and cultural pursuits – and Amarillo boasts several superlative illustrations of each.
With a diverse economy – from agriculture and oil and gas to aircraft production and precious-metal refining – Amarillo perennially boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state.
Amarillo received the following accolades since 2018:
Amarillo is the Spanish word for the color yellow. The entire Panhandle, unlike most of Texas, enjoys all four distinctive seasons each year, and gorgeous sunsets are typical. The region is often referred to as the Golden Spread.
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