June 01, 2020

Amarillo, TX -  Ascension Academy is one of approximately 1,800 schools worldwide to implement the AP Capstone™ Diploma program―an innovative program that allows students to develop the skills that matter most for college success, such as research, collaboration, and communication. The program consists of two courses taken in sequence: AP® Seminar and AP Research.

February 24, 2020

Ascension Academy and the Ascension Academy Board of Regents are pleased to announce the hiring of Tim Oditt as Head of School effective July 1, 2020. Mr. Oditt will join the school's leadership team continuing the focus on a tradition of excellence embodied here at Ascension. Mr. Oditt will assume the position that is currently held by Dr. William Summerhill who is retiring at the end of the 2020 school year after 12 years at Ascension.

Ascension is excited to welcome the Oditt family to Amarillo. Tim and his wife, Jennifer, a native Texan, have a daughter, Julianna enrolled at Miami University (Ohio) and a son, Miles, who will be attending Ascension in the fall as a 7th grader.

January 29, 2020

We are proud to announce that Ascension Academy has been accepted into The Cum Laude Society, an association that is dedicated to honoring scholastic achievement in secondary schools. There are 382 other schools that have been accepted with approximately two dozen as public schools and the remaining being independent schools. “Being accepted into the Cum Laude Society is another mark of distinction that the faculty and students of Ascension Academy have earned through their commitment to academic excellence, making us the only school in the Panhandle qualified to so honor our top graduates with this universally recognized and respected honor,” said Dr. Bill Summerhill, Head of School.

December 12, 2019

Ascension Academy has earned its accreditation as a member of the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS) for the fourth time in its 20 year history. To earn accreditation from SAIS, Ascension complied with quality standards, was evaluated by an outside group of peer professionals, and implemented a school plan focused on strategic improvement and student performance in accordance.

A team representing SAIS conducted an on-site visit this past October to review this school’s self-study and standards compliance and its adherence to its mission.  The team was comprised of diverse educational leaders from some of the finest institutions in the southeast.  The visiting team sought the answers to critical questions the school asked of itself by meeting with faculty and staff, school board members, students and parents. This accreditation lasts until June 2025.

November 20, 2019

Congratulations to all our middle school Ascension Scholars who participated in today's Spelling Bee! Pranav Nambiar won first place and Veronica Portillo followed close behind and won second place. Both Pranav and Veronica will go on to represent Ascension at the Regional Spelling Bee in Canyon.

September 30, 2019

Middle school students had a great time learning from the Ogalala Commons team!

September 21, 2019

Ascension's Speech and Debate Team turned in an outstanding performance against 15 area high schools at the annual "Speak and Be Herd" tournament in Hereford. Five of our students advanced to the finals to claim 6 awards overall. Kobe Williams led the way with a third place finish in Foreign Extemp and 4th in Oratory. Lauren Stovall placed third in Prose Interp. Nathan Leech and Emma Engler place 4th and 6th respectively in Informative Speaking, and eighth grader Araceli Saratt became the first Ascension student to advance to the finals in her first tournament, earning 7th place overall. Also competing in two challenging preliminary rounds at Hereford were Alex Bailey in U.S. Extemp, Jack Bailey in Foreign Extemp, and Adarsh Nambiar in Informative Speaking.
Congratulations to all our Speech and Debate Team members for their hard work and their willingness to "Speak and Be Herd". This Saturday, our Speech and Debate Team will compete at Tascosa High School against an even larger field of high schools from the Panhandle and beyond.

September 12, 2019

Brother and sister duo Troy and Campbell Schouten were named National Merit Scholar Semifinalists. There are approximately 16,000 Semifinalists on a national level, and five come from the Texas Panhandle. These students can choose to continue in the National Merit competition and have a chance to earn one of the 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $31 million that will be offered next spring.

August 01, 2019

Ascension named BEST High School for STEM in our area for the second year in a row, according to Niche.

May 01, 2019

Amarillo Magazine annual Reader's Choice Awards appear in the May issue and feature Ascension Academy as Best Private School for 2019.

April 30, 2019

Ascension Cardinals had top placements at last weekend's state TAME competition in Huntsville, TX!

296 students competed in the areas of math, science, and engineering...

Alex Wan - 6th Place in 12th Grade Math, 1st Place in 12th Grade Science

Allison Wu - 1st Place in 7th Grade Math, 4th Place in 7th Grade Science

Troy Schouten - 2nd Place in 11th Grade Math, 1st Place in 11th Grade Science

March 25, 2019

Despite the talented and tenacious competition at Saturday's Bee, Mehtan is the regional Spelling Bee champion!  He will compete in the Scripp's National Spelling Bee in Maryland on May 26th.

February 12, 2019

Big kudos to Mehtan for taking home 1st Place in the Randall County Spelling Bee!  He has had quite a week of accomplishments...  He is the captain of the Cardinal team who took home 1st Place in the NNSA Regional Science Bowl this past Saturday and also the winner at the Randall County Spelling Bee today!  We are so proud of his hard work and dedication!  He competes in the Regional Spelling Bee on March 6th for the opportunity to compete at the National Spelling Bee and will be attending the National Science Bowl competition in Washington, D.C. later this spring.  We are also so proud of Pranav Nambiar who also competed in the Randall County Bee and is a member of the Cardinal Science Bowl Team who came in 3rd Place!

February 09, 2019

Cardinal Science Bowl Red Team wins the 2019 competition and Gold Team takes third place in the U.S. Department of Energy regional competition hosted by WTAMU and Pantex.  It was a tough day of double-elimination competition, and the Cardinals came out on top!

October 10, 2018

Patrick Houseal, a senior at Ascension Academy has recently been named in the National Hispanic Heritage Recognition Program for his performance on the 2017 PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and his Grade Point Average. 

September 28, 2018

Braden Santer has been named as a Semi-Finalist and David Bateman has been named a Commended Scholar in the in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.

August 29, 2018

Ascension Academy is featured in the August edition of Amarillo Magazine as the Face of College Prep Education for the Amarillo and surrounding area.  

Read the ABC News Channel 7 article about our new basketball coach, Austin Johnson!

May 08, 2018

Ascension students brought home over 60 awards from the Texas Junior Classical League Convention.  This competition is open to all public and private schools with qualifying students at the regional level to come together for a weekend of JCL business and healthy competition... So proud of our Cardinals!

April 28, 2018

The Texas Citizen Bee is a statewide civic-education competition sponsored by the State Bar of Texas. Mote advanced to the state meet after winning the regional Citizen Bee competition at Region 16 in Amarillo. Mote competed against regional winners from public schools, private schools, home-school associations and parochial schools.

April 05, 2018

2018 senior, Dallas Brandt signed her Letter of Intent with WTAMU for Track and Cross Country this week.  She will extend her fantastic running career here at Ascension, bringing many school and regional records with her to college.  

March 20, 2018

Our coaches, Nirmala Narasimhan and Patti Summerhill work hard all year with our middle school team to prepare for competition and build advanced math skills.  The team took home 1st Place this year in regional competition!

The MATHCOUNTS Competition Series is a national program that provides students the opportunity to compete in live, in-person contests against and alongside their peers. Created in 1983, it is the longest-running MATHCOUNTS program and is open to all sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students.

March 03, 2018

Jeff won the Regional Spelling Bee on Saturday and is headed to Washington, DC to compete in the National Spelling Bee later in the spring.  This is his SECOND year in a row to make it this far in the competition! 

March 02, 2018

1st Place: Kelvin Mote

2nd Place: Andy Heckman 

3rd Place: Seth Hamilton

​

The Texas Citizen Bee is a statewide civic education competition for grades 9-12 with both written & oral sections. 

 

February 23, 2019

The Cardinal High School Science Bowl Teams brought home 3rd & 5th place victories in the Pantex Regional Science Bowl on Saturday.  We are so proud of their hard work and dedication!  It was a tough competition between 16 of the top public and private schools in the Texas Panhandle.

February 14, 2018

Seventh-graders, Jeff Zheng, and Aditi Nair placed 1st and 2nd in the Randall County Spelling Bee, Eighth-grader, Rohit Saralaya placed 4th!

February 02, 2018

Several middle school artists were chosen for a special gallery showing of their recent projects in the Ascension Student Gallery at Sunset Center for First Friday Art Walk...

The 7th-grade exhibitors are Aaron Arenivas, Belle Buse, Hugo Diaz, Andrew Dominguez, Ben Jones, Braiden McCain, Hannah Nguyen, Jillian Sawyer, Will Severn, Gweneth Shaddon and Hoyt Waldrop.

The 8th-grade exhibitors are Rickey Allford, Preston Campbell, Sadie Chitwood, Cole Drummond, Emma Engler, Kayla Gutierrez and Zane Johnson.

January 31, 2018

The Middle School Science Bowl Team of Adi Srikanth, Rohit Saralaya, Will Severn, Mehtan Rahman, and Kinza Rahman challenged attorneys from the law firm of Burdett, Morgan, Williamson & Boykin in a Mock Science Bowl at the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce today... And Won!

January 29, 2018

Nathan Bartley for representing Ascension at the Region 1 All-Region Concert Band at WTAMU!

Aaron Arenivas, Aditi Nair, and Lauren Stovall each received top scores for their violin solos in the UIL Solo and Ensemble Contest at Amarillo College!

January 27, 2018

High School Boys Swim Team members bring home the TAPPS Division III North Regional Title! 

December 16, 2017

In the Tarpley Band Member Spotlight this week we find Ascension Academy Sophomore Dalton Mote.

​

This 16-year-old band standout is an Amarillo native who earns high marks from Ascension Academy Wind Ensemble Director Kellie Bartley.

December 02, 2017

Friday was truly a first for art students at Ascension Academy. The monthly First Friday Art Walk at The Galleries at Sunset Center, 3701 Plains Blvd., featured the debut of the Ascension Academy Art Gallery — a student-run, professional gallery that is the first of its kind in Amarillo.

December 01, 2017

Art aficionados now have the opportunity to view some amazing artwork by the Ascension Academy Studio Art students by visiting their n e w student-run art gallery in Sunset Art Galleries of Amarillo located at 3701 Plains Boulevard, Suite 94. 

October 24, 2017

AMARILLO, TX (KFDA) -

Amarillo College is partnering with Ascension Academy to help students save money and complete their education earlier.

September 23, 2017

Every school has, in one form or another, a mission designed to produce specific outcomes in student performance and aptitudes. These have ranged from equipping young people to enter the workforce, inspiring them to become good and productive citizens, or preparing them to secure college acceptances.

September 04, 2017

Congratulations Campbell and Troy Schouten for your PERFECT scores on the 2017 National Latin Exam!

September 01, 2017

Ascension Academy's students engage in a rich program that cultivates creativity and builds intellectual capacity through academics and fine arts, as well as athletics and real-world experience in global citizenship.

July 01, 2017

An education at Ascension Academy is grounded by its commitment to yield well-rounded, college-ready students through a rigorous academic and interdisciplinary curriculum. 

April 26, 2017

Amarillo's Ascension Academy is celebrating the accomplishments of more than a dozen students who recently competed in the Texas Association of Private Parochial Schools (TAPPS) 3A Academic State Championship in Waco.

March 04, 2017

As the competition went on, the words got tougher and tougher. But, in the end, Ascension Academy’s Jeff Zheng outlasted 15 other competitors over 35 rounds — plus the championship word — to win the 69th Regional Spelling Bee on Saturday at the Region 16 Education Service Center.

February 20, 2017

Dr. William Summerhill, Head of Amarillo's Ascension Academy, has been recognized by the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), joining a small group of only 200 administrators who have received such an honor.

January 07, 2017

David Robinson, a member of the Ascension Academy Cardinal Choir will perform with the Texas All-State Choir in San Antonio, Saturday, February 11, 2017 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center as part of the 2017 Texas Music Educators Association Clinic/Convention.

September 28, 2016

For the second year in a row, juniors and seniors at Amarillo’s Ascension Academy High School have surpassed the national average on Advanced Placement (AP) testing.

Ascension students took a total of 111 exams in May of 2016. Of those, 89, or an impressive 80%, received honors-level scores of 3, 4 or 5.

September 01, 2016

William Summerhill of Ascension Academy announced that Houseal and Spidel have been named Commended Students in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. 

September 01, 2016

Ascension Academy high school juniors and seniors who took the May AP exams earned honors-level scores (3, 4 or 5 on the 5 point test scale) at a rate 16-39% higher than the national averages on eight different tests that measure college readiness: English Language, English Literature, Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, American Government, Latin, and U.S. History.