AC Grad Completes TechTeach Program

Kamrynn Striley is preparing her kindergarten classroom at Glenwood Elementary School, where she will begin her teaching career in earnest this fall. (Amarillo College)

An Amarillo College graduate has completed the Tech Teach program.

The program is a three-pronged partnership in Amarillo between Texas Tech, AC and the Amarillo Independent School District that allows community college graduates to complete a bachelor’s degree and earn teacher certification in one calendar year.

Kamrynn Striley is a 2018 graduate of Amarillo High School, will be a first-year kindergarten teacher this fall at AISD’s Glenwood Elementary School.

“It’s so exciting,” said Striley, who turned 21 in June. “I attended Amarillo schools all my life and now I’m going to teach in them – I’ve literally come full circle. This program was so totally worth it. I got what is essentially a two-year bachelor’s degree in one year of really intensive student teaching.

“It was a busy, busy year, but it was an easy trade-off to make. Eight of us who graduated from Amarillo College only last year will graduate from Texas Tech on Aug. 7, and I can’t wait. To this day, I’ve never been on the Tech campus.”

TechTeach candidates receive classroom coaching from skilled, experienced site coordinators and mentor teachers, where they are immediately able to apply principles from their practical coursework because they are actually teaching in a classroom almost every day.