Student success at LCCC on the rise

Near the beginning of Sorinna Meyer’s Zoology course in her first semester at Laramie County Community College, she thought she had encountered a roadblock that would break her.

Zoology, part of the Anatomy and Physiology curriculum, is a difficult course. When Sorinna encountered the muscle groups in the course’s early stage, it seemed like she wouldn’t be able to meet the task. But instructor Katie Blunn was not going to let Sorinna give up without giving it a try.

“We were learning about the muscles; we had a test coming up in like three days, and I could not understand it whatsoever,” Sorinna said. “I was crying, and Katie came over and was so helpful and sympathetic.”

Katie stayed with Sorinna after class, covering the material in great detail. Additionally, approaches like using “directional terms” — the anatomical vocabulary describing how body parts relate to each other — allowed Sorinna to use process of elimination in identifying muscle groups.

Though Sorinna said she was “still a little iffy” about passing when she took the exam, she ended up scoring 98%.

“That’s when I realized that if you have a teacher who actually cares and wants to help you, you’re going to be fine,” Sorinna said.

In the end, Sorinna not only passed Zoology but also received an A-grade for the course overall. That success, she said, could be attributed to the methods, approach and demeanor of her instructor, Katie.

“She’s the only reason I’m still in school, because I really was about to quit in the beginning,” Sorinna said. “Honestly, that was probably one of my favorite classes I’ve ever taken.”

That personal shift sits inside a bigger story at LCCC about course-level success driving persistence and graduation. In his State of the College address on Aug. 11 at LCCC’s Cheyenne campus, LCCC President Joe Schaffer said the college’s success with enrollment was encouraging, but he was really inspired by the rates of student success.

“We love enrollment, but here’s the truth: it doesn’t matter if students don’t succeed,” Joe said. “Success starts at the course level, and that’s where the real impact happens.”

LCCC is leading Wyoming’s community colleges in the proportion of completed course credit hours, a number that has steadily risen in recent years

LCCC is on an upward trajectory for awarding credentials and walking graduates across the stage. The college awarded 976 credentials and had 795 graduates in 2025, the most in the college’s history.

Pathways across campus are producing more credentials than in pre-pandemic times. For example, looking at the five-year change between 2021-2025, the Information Technology Pathway has increased its credential awards by more than 155%, followed by Trades and Technical Studies at more than 75%.

“Course success rates are improving every single year,” Joe said. “That doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of dedicated faculty and staff and so many others who are putting in the work. To all of you, congratulations. You’re leading the pack.”

With 42% of LCCC’s students going into the Health Sciences & Wellness Pathway, Joe highlighted Anatomy and Physiology — a notoriously difficult set of courses for students. However, at LCCC, he pointed out that students in Zoology had seen incredible success. The pass rate in Zoology through the last five years increased from 57% to a whopping 80.4%.

For Katie’s Zoology course sections, the pass rate sits at 90%.

“That kind of work changes lives, and it changes this institution,” Joe said.

For Katie and her fellow Anatomy and Physiology instructors at LCCC, teaching begins with creating a student-centered classroom where the instructor is a resource rather than a barrier. She emphasizes that students must see the material as valuable, because recognizing its importance motivates them to engage more deeply. To reinforce that value, Katie designs activities where students read, write, discuss and apply concepts in multiple ways, creating pathways that help knowledge stick. Class time is devoted to conceptual understanding, while labs and group work provide opportunities to process and practice before students commit details to memory on their own.

“We learn best when information feels valuable, so I build activities that get them to write it, say it, and work with it in different ways,” Katie said. “The goal is for class time to focus on understanding concepts, then they can use their study time to really lock it in.”

Active learning is the throughline. For Sorinna, hands-on work turned abstract labels into recognizable anatomy, including a lab on ocular structures that clicked when she could see and identify them with classmates before turning to the instructor.

The peer-to-peer learning, Sorinna said, helped her to remember important material in unique ways.

“Being able to explain things to my classmates, and having them explain things to me, was really helpful for understanding and retaining the material,” she said.

Katie believes in the value of students explaining what they’ve learned to others, as she’s seen how it helps them to understand and connect complex concepts.

“I tell them to go home and explain what they learned to a child, a partner or a roommate, because that really helps you learn it,” she said. “I’m proud of how often my students form study groups. That’s the best thing they can do, because helping each other is when you really learn it.”

The classroom, Katie said, should have a community feel. Rather than having difficult courses that serve as gatekeepers for important jobs, She wants to show students who think they can’t succeed that they can.

In her first college semester in Spring 2025, Sorinna walked into LCCC as an introvert with little confidence that she could arrive at her goal of working in Radiography. But after Katie’s Zoology course, Sorinna said she not only found herself unexpectedly breaking out of her shell and making friends at school, but also achieving academically beyond her own expectations.

The Zoology course showed Sorinna she could achieve more than she ever thought possible. Facing new challenges in the fall semester, she said she’s prepared to take on new hurdles, knowing she’s capable of clearing them, no matter how intimidating the task may be.

“The Zoology class really changed my idea of college and showed me that it wasn't gonna be scary,” Sorinna said.