Anna Krepel holds certificates of achievement after competing at the 2025 Society for Range Management Fall Conference and Training in Riverton. Krepel has placed first in the Plant Identification Contest for the past three years. She credits the club with helping her find success socially, professionally and academically at UW. (Anna Krepel Photo)
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.
Anna Krepel works to separate stream insects during her role as a seasonal field technician with UW’s Hydrologic Science Program. After graduating Saturday, Dec. 13, Krepel will begin work in Nebraska as a water quantity technician. (Anna Krepel Photo)
“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.
