VOLUME 90 | ISSUE 6
DECEMBER 12, 2019
College ends 2019 in national spotlight Awards, news coverage recognize ‘culture of caring’ from coast-to-coast By TITUS GILNER Staff Reporter Amarillo College is wrapping up a year filled with national awards and recognition. “We are becoming the example from Maine to Malibu,” Joe Wyatt, the assistant director of communications and marketing at AC, said. During 2019, AC garnered national attention with articles in well-known publications such as “The Atlantic” and “The Chronicle of Higher Education.” The college also won several prizes recognizing excellence in serving students. Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, AC president, said the reason the college is garnering so much attention is its commitment to creating a culture of caring. “It’s about going above and beyond. It’s about doing whatever it takes to help students live their dream,” he said. The first major accomplishment of the year came Feb. 5, 2019, when AC won the prestigious Bellwether Legacy Award. The Legacy Award recognizes community college that have previously won Bellwether Awards – AC won in 2017 – and have shown five or more years of successful implementation. Next, AC was named corecipient of the 2019 Leah Meyer Austin Award presented by community college reform
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Amarillo College is one of 150 community colleges in the nation invited to apply for the Aspen Award for Community College Excellence.
group Achieving the Dream Feb. 20, 2019. This award recognizes measurable, datadriven improvements in student welfare On Nov. 7, 2019, AC was named one of the 150 community colleges in the nation that will be eligible for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. This heavily-sought-after award recognizes high achievement and performance among community colleges and comes with a $1 million prize. Only 15 percent of community colleges across the nation are even
Grad prepares for the stage By LAUREN EBBEN and RAY GUTIERREZ Staff Reporters Amarillo College will hold the winter commencement ceremony at 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 20, at the Amarillo Civic Center. Madeline Filsouf, a graduating psychology major, will be the speaker at the event. “I feel honored and proud to represent my peers as well as AC in such a spectacular way. AC allowed me to reach for the stars and in addition made me feel like one,” Filsouf said. Filsouf said she credits AC for being a “vital part” of who she is today. “AC has shown me the importance of mental health and significance of each individual student. The courses and professors have pushed me to reach my best potential, I am lucky to have had such wonderful mentors that care and challenge their students,” she said. While at AC, Filsouf was part of the Presidential Scholars program and Phi Theta Kappa. “Being in the Presidential Scholars has especially shaped my character and brought out the best in me. I am so grateful for the amazing opportunities it, as well as Lesley Ingham and Jill Gibson, have granted me. All
MADELINE FILSOUF
it takes is for special professors to recognize your abilities and strengths that will make you see them as well.” Filsouf said she is excited about graduation. “I cannot wait to start a new chapter and continue my education. AC and the people I got to be surrounded by hold a special place in my heart.” Graduating students need to be at the Civic Center by 6:00 to 6:10 p.m. dressed in caps and gowns and they still have time to purchase commencement regalia at the AC Bookstore. “We have them right up until graduation day. We’ll be open on the 20th and they should still be in stock,” Jacque Young , a bookstore cashier, said. Young also had some advice for what to wear under their regalia. “As long as it fits under the gown it’s OK, I wore suit pants and a shirt. You definitely want to be comfortable sitting throughout the ceremony,” she said.
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invited to apply, and out of the 150 programs that have made it this far only 10 will be named finalists in May 2020. Those finalists will then be evaluated by the Aspen Institute and a jury will decide the winner in spring 2021. Both Wyatt and LoweryHart said this nomination truly sums up all of the things that AC has worked to achieve over the past five years. AC has also been making advancements in democracy, as shown by achieving the Bronze Level Seal of recognition from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
From the 2014 midterms to the 2018 midterms, the AC student body increased voter turnout by nearly 17 percent, up to 26.5 percent in 2018, according to data gathered by the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. Next, AC received reaccreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for the Child Development Lab School, located at the West Campus, which is only one of two programs for young children in the Texas Panhandle that holds
this accreditation. Finally, Lowery-Hart said the crowning achievement from 2019 came in May when the college celebrated having the largest graduating class in its history. “Which is why all of these awards matter,” he said. “We’re fundamentally changing the economic outlook of our community by giving students a clear pathway to success,” he said. “And the awards are an amazing acknowledgment of all the great work that our students, faculty and staff have done. But ultimately that’s the biggest reward – watching students get their diploma and shaking their hand when they do it.” As the year comes to an end and the curtain falls on this decade, AC continues to look to the future and embrace the culture of caring philosophy. “To make love the foundation of who we are – that we are going to love our students and love each other – is really profound to me,” Lowery-Hart said. “I just have so much hope for this college and this community,” Lowery-Hart said. “I think in the perfect world, the story we would have written gives every institution in the country hope that they can save their community the way we have saved ours. I know we have to improve to make that happen, but I truly believe in the next five years we can make that happen at AC.”
An American writer comes to campus By CAYLEE HANNA Staff Reporter S.C. Gwynne, an American writer, came to Amarillo College Dec. 5 and 6 to kick off the AC Creative Mind Series for 20192020, which revolves around the theme “Reverberations of Conflict: The Legacy of the Civil War.” Gwynne spoke to history classes, gave a free lecture at the Amarillo Globe News Center and held a writer’s workshop to offer advice to young journalists and aspiring writers. “The single most important piece of writing is the transition between the ideas ideally in your outline,” Gwynne said during the workshop. “There’s no way I could ever write transitions without having an outline because good writing is really just moving through these ideas in a sequence.” Gwynne also explained his transition from being a journalist to writing about history. “I would say on a very fundamental level, writing history is just really, really slow journalism,” Gwynne said. “In journalism, you have editors breathing down your neck. You’re on deadline and that’s the way it works. So eventually where I landed was writing a history book. You can write in leisure in the privacy of your own room or a library and it’s what I prefer to do.”
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JESSIKA FULTON | The Ranger
S.C. Gwynne, an historical writer, addresses his audience as the floor is opened up for questions. Gwynne was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his 2010 book “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Tribe in American History.” His latest book is called “Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War.” Courtney Milleson, associate professor of speech, helped organize this event along with Eric Fauss, assistant professor of social sciences and coordinator of the Creative Mind Series. Milleson said that the goal of the event was to inspire attendees. “I hope the audience knows how incredibly powerful the written word is,” Milleson said. “We have the power to tell our
stories, feelings and emotions. And if we just take the time to hone that craft, we can really begin to be change agents in our entire stratosphere.” Students also learned about upcoming opportunities that Gwynne is exploring. “I found it interesting when Gwynne explained his journey and future opportunities he might have with a possible movie,” Jessika Fulton, a mass media major, said. Along with Gwynne’s visit, an exhibit of photographs titled “Ruins of the Civil War,” on loan from the Library of Congress is on display now through Jan. 8 at AC’s Southern Light Gallery in the Ware Student Commons. Additional events for the Creative Mind Series will take place in the spring.
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