LCCC was Arah’s first step toward life as lawyer

When Arah Dauer first came to Laramie County Community College, she did not know what she wanted to do with her life.

After a childhood marked by its share of troubles, Arah dropped out in her senior year of high school and moved from west Denver to Cheyenne. Struggling to make ends meet waiting tables, Arah knew her life needed a profound reset.

“I had no future, and I was aware of it,” Arah said.

Today, Arah is an attorney whose law school work specialized in criminal defense and affordable housing. Looking back, she sees LCCC as the place where that journey began — not because she arrived with a clear plan, but because the college gave her the support and encouragement to find one.

At LCCC, Arah found a place to begin. A woman who worked in transitional services helped her see that she could earn her high school equivalency instead of returning to a high school environment where she had struggled. Arah found a way to approach education on her own terms.

“I think the thing that I was going to LCCC to find was my own meaning in school,” Arah said. “What does school mean for me? I’m not going because somebody else pushed me. I’m not going because society dictated it for me. I want to learn something meaningful to me.”

Finding help along the way

That search for meaning started in the Automotive Technology Program because Arah saw it as a path to the independence she wanted. The start had its rough moments — she didn’t know how to perform most maintenance tasks on a car, and even changing a tire seemed foreign. But Arah was determined that she would find her own way, starting here. 

While Arah was making decisions about where to go, she was still receiving help along the way. In the shop, Robert “Frankie” LaFaso, LCCC automotive instructor, became one of the people who helped Arah establish herself in a new light. Arah was the only woman in the automotive program at the time, she said, but Frankie made her feel welcome and on the same footing as her peers. 

Frankie saw that Arah had more room to grow. He eventually told Arah that she shouldn’t stop her education at her automotive technology certification.

“He saw that I had potential,” Arah said.

LCCC helped Arah earn her high school equivalency, complete vocational training, move into an associate degree and eventually shift toward business. The college also helped her prepare to transfer to the University of Wyoming, a step that once felt overwhelming.

By then, she was no longer the same uncertain student who had arrived at LCCC wondering whether she could attain a high school equivalency.

“When I came to LCCC, I wasn’t sure I was going to pass the GED test,” Arah said. “There was a lot of self-doubt. There was a lot of uncertainty and unknown about the future.”

Community college was the launchpad 

After three years at LCCC, that had changed. She had tutors, community and mentors who helped her understand that if she could succeed at LCCC, she could succeed at the university.

“I knew what I was doing,” Arah said. “I had a very clear path. I understood what it took to be successful as a student.”

LCCC also helped with some of the practical needs she had as a student, Arah said, making sure she secured financial aid and housing. College was still about learning the classroom curriculum, but it also helped Arah learn to be an adult, she said.

Arah earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from UW, built a career in health care technology and later earned a master’s in Human-Computer Interaction from Iowa State University’s School of Engineering. 

In 2025, Arah reached a goal that might have seemed out of reach earlier in her life, earning a law degree cum laude from Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

Hard work led to a new life

Eventually, the self-trust she began building at LCCC became part of a professional life centered on advocacy. In law school, Arah specialized in criminal defense and affordable housing, focusing her education on areas connected to justice, stability and the circumstances that shape people’s lives.

For Arah, that work connects to something that has long been part of who she is. As someone whose natural makeup includes challenging authorities and seeking justice, Arah said law school helped her learn how to direct that energy.

“My natural makeup includes challenge and advocacy,” Arah said. “But I would say that it was wild and untamed until I went into law school.”

Looking back, the path can seem extraordinary. To Arah, it started with one step she could see at the time. Then another. Then another.

“The only thing I could do was picture the next step,” she said. “The idea of a future vision was way too big for me.”

Taking the risk for the reward

For people who feel stuck, whether they dropped out of high school, feel uncertain about college or do not know what they want their future to look like, Arah said the first sign may simply be the fact that they are thinking about change at all.

“If you’re thinking about it at all, that’s your cue,” Arah said.

Through every stage of her education, Arah said, she was not always sure she would finish. That was true in community college, in graduate school and in law school. The difference was her willingness to try before certainty arrived.

“I gave myself permission to fail,” Arah said. “I’m not special. This isn’t talent here. This is a willingness to say I could suck at this, but I’m going to try anyway.”