The Current

Brandon Belflower

By LINCOLN SISNEROS

Amarillo College Student Media’s latest edition of “The Current” is now on newsstands at all AC campuses. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, students created this issue of the magazine over the summer and released it this fall instead of during spring semester as originally planned. The edition focuses on how the arts have helped the AC community cope with the pandemic and the social injustices occurring during this time.

So far, the edition has received positive feedback.

“My favorite part of the magazine would have to be the first page with the words and phrases scrambled together, the one that has a golden background,” Cadence Hamlin, a biology major said. “I believe it illustrates the tensions people have been feeling concerning the virus. It’s very expressive.”

Narciso Toquinto, a graphic design major, said his favorite piece in the magazine was an illustration by Daniar Onoz. “The art piece is showing the fact that people are afraid they’re running out of time to live because they fear if they get corona while already having a poor immune system that they would have the potential to die sooner from it. I love the colors,” he said.

Other pieces in the magazine include a feature on how Rene West, an AC photography professor, has created daily still life photos to process the pandemic, a story about how people have escaped through entertainment and an exploration of an internet trend in which students reenacted scenes from famous artwork while quarantined at home.

Becky Easton, the dean of liberal arts, said she liked the story about David Lovejoy, an AC alumni and journalist who is also the first vice president for the Amarillo branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“Lovejoy explained why being unbiased in journalism is important,” Easton said.

Lauren Ebben, a recent graduate of the Matney Mass Media Program, served as the magazine editor. She also was editor of the fall 2019 edition of “The Current,” which was recently nominated as a finalist for a national College Media Association award.

“The magazine exists to give students pursuing a career in mass communication the opportunity to work on a publication while still in school,” Ebben said. “It provides a valuable, well-rounded learning experience in magazine design, print production, story writing and photography. Students who work on the magazine develop the skills to succeed later on in life, not just as a journalist, but as a person.”

Along with Ebben, the staff of the summer 2020 edition included Jenna Gibson, a mass media major, as art director and page designer and Caylee Hanna, a mass media major, as assistant editor.

The next edition of “The Current” is set to be released by the end of fall semester with Jessika Fulton, a mass media major, as the editor.

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