Winter Graduate Found Success, Community in UW Club

Anna Krepel is a top performer at the state and national level. The secret to her academic, personal and professional success? The University of Wyoming's Range Club and the community she found there.

Krepel, of Colombus, Neb., will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in rangeland ecology and watershed management Saturday, Dec. 13, at 10 a.m. in the Arena-Auditorium.

In her three and a half years at UW, Krepel has made a name for herself as a member of the Range Club; she's placed first in the state-level Plant Identification Contest each year. At the 2025 Society for Range Management Meeting and Contest in Spokane, Wash., a national conference that also includes students from Canada and Mexico, she placed seventh in the undergraduate range management examination. As a result of her high performance on the exam, Krepel, placing in the top 10 percent of competitors this year, can become a certified professional in rangeland management after four years of working rather than taking an exam. Most professionals pursue the certification, she says.

Competing at the conferences provides opportunities for networking, Krepel says. People become familiar with students' faces when they see them cross the stage. When they're not competing, students attend seminars and job fairs. This can help with the sometimes-difficult transition from college into the workforce.

"Range Club satisfied my desire for competition. It's helped me in class; it's helped me get jobs," Krepel says. "Because having that to put on my resume, that I won, people like to see that. Or employers like to see that."

Krepel accepted a job as a water quantity technician in her home state of Nebraska. It wasn't originally in the cards to return to her home state, but Krepel's husband and high school sweetheart, whom she married while at UW, wanted to be closer to family. Marrying as a college student provided support and taught her time management while earning her degree. Her time with Range Club and summer field work she found through the club helped her nab the job, she says.

As a member of the club, Krepel got to know its adviser Brian Sebade, an assistant lecturer in rangeland ecology and watershed management, who served as a reference for the position.

Krepel's driven; is unafraid to ask questions; and willing to put in extra work to make sure she accomplishes or understands things, Sebade says.

"I think plant ID is a great example … we have practice once a week," Sebade says. "But if you want to excel at it, you need to spend time outside of practice to do really well. Anna is one of those people who is willing to take that time out of class, or out of practice, or whatever else that might be, to make sure that she is on top of whatever the subject matter is."

Krepel heard about Range Club during freshman orientation.

"It sounded like a really close-knit group of students. I really wanted to be a part of that," she says.

Krepel was drawn to UW because of its rangeland program, which is accredited through the Society for Range Management. She planned to find community as she began her collegiate journey. She didn't expect to find it during orientation, including from faculty and staff.

"I'd say I'd found success, just like in the general college experience, which I think a lot of people come to college and one of their main things that they want to find is a tight-knit group of friends … and so that was Range Club for me," says Krepel, who served as the club's 2024-2025 president.

The club members would study together, and the events Krepel competed in translated to her coursework.

She practiced weekly under faculty who served as coaches. This included Sebade and undergraduate range management exam coach Jeffrey Beck, a UW professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management.

As a student, Krepel worked summer jobs as a field technician to build her resume. Each opportunity came through Range Club. Her first summer gig, recommended by a friend from the club, was on McGuire Ranch. The work primarily focused on the effect of cattle grazing on birds. Krepel grew up on 60 acres in Nebraska, but she wasn't raised on a farm. She calls her family's land "canyon land," meaning it has plenty of ravines and is unsuitable for farming.

"We learned a ton of technical skills. It was a great way to build my resume, which is something I really wanted to focus on, especially because I didn't grow up with the farm experience," Krepel says. "I knew that I had to make up for that, somehow. So, I really leaned into summer field work."

Her second experience with field work was in the Hydrologic Science Program under Associate Professor Fabian Nippgen. This position allowed her to move from project to project under a variety of graduate students, including a backpacking trip in the Tetons monitoring aquatic stream insects. Her work with the program helped her gain experience in the watershed portion of her degree, making it a useful experience for her new job in Nebraska.

"She's somebody who has a smile on her face, is kind to others and somebody who will be successful in the workplace," Sebade says.