For nearly two decades, Cecilia Gowdy-Wygant, PhD, has been helping students at Front Range Community College see history as both a subject and a way of understanding the world.
“I started here in 2007, and I’ve held a lot of different roles and worn a lot of different hats,” says Cecilia, who is an honors and lead history faculty member. She also teaches women and gender studies.
From Community College Student to Professor
Cecilia’s path to FRCC wasn’t what she expected, but it turned out to be exactly the right fit.
Her personal experience attending community college at Amarillo College was both positive and formative. She says she felt supported by helpful and motivating faculty who fostered a collaborative environment and encouraged her to do her best.
This sense of community and student support left a lasting impression, ultimately shaping her desire to work at a community college herself.
Finding Her Career Path
At first, while teaching at Texas Tech University for four years when she was completing her PhD, she expected to continue working at a four-year university.
“I still have this visual in my mind, this memory, of seeing a listing for Front Range Community College,” she recalls. And after reflecting on her personal positive experience at a community college, she decided to apply.
“(Community colleges) seemed really collaborative and focused on helping their community,” she added. “That’s something that I didn’t always see a lot at a four-year institution. And I thought, I want to give this a try.”
Bringing History to Life
Today, Cecilia teaches both in-person and online courses at FRCC.
“Over the last decade or so, there’s been a growing interest among students in women’s history, and so almost all of the courses that I teach now have something to do with that, which is pretty great,” she says.
Cecilia’s background is in environmental history and women’s history, and she has published research on women and the environment.
A Tour Guide Through History
Her teaching approach has evolved over time, especially with the growth of online learning.
“Teaching online is definitely different than teaching in person,” she explains. “It essentially requires us to get out of our mindset that we need to be that ‘sage on the stage,’ sharing a lecture and just sharing the knowledge from our brain. Instead, we need to utilize our experience to set up an environment that is conducive for learning.”
That philosophy now shapes both her online and in-person classes.
“It’s a very experiential learning environment, whether it’s online or on campus,” she says. “I have students going out to local historical sites to experience history in person. Even though they’re taking a class online, they go take an opportunity to get out, maybe in person, or do virtual museum tours.”
Engaging and Sharing
Her students also get to engage in oral history. They interview family or community members, analyze sources and share their findings with peers.
“From all that perspective, I see myself now more as a tour guide to history. I set things up, and I build an experience for them, and then the students come in, and then they learn through that experience,” she says.
Building Skills That Last
While she loves teaching history, Cecilia says the subject is a vehicle for something bigger.
“I want them to develop critical skills, because no matter what their major is, what they’re going to do in life, even if it’s just having a conversation with a family member—to be able to identify information and know whether it’s accurate, to be able to analyze it themselves and to be able to communicate about it—those are skills that everyone needs,” she explains.
Her oral history projects have become a cornerstone of that approach.
“Students say that was one of the most memorable things about their college career,” she says. “They really engage with it and really enjoy it.”
Career Highlights, Student Success
After 18 years, Cecilia has many proud teaching moments, but a few stand out.
“I have two former students who sat in my American history classrooms as students and who now work with us,” she says. “They are now history professors at Front Range. That’s such an enriching feeling for me.”
One of those students is Jeffery Smith, FRCC history instructor.
“As my instructor at FRCC, Cecilia encouraged me to think beyond my own self-imposed limitations and inspired me to believe in myself. This mindset carried me through graduate school and helped me realize my potential,” Jeffrey says. Now as her colleague, I am trying to impart the same approach with my own students.”
Another memorable moment came from a creative spark in one of her classes.
“A student in my online Women in World History class became so inspired by the things that we were learning that they wrote a poem about the importance of writing women back into the narrative of history,” she says.
“They went to an open-mic night and presented it publicly and invited me. To hear a student who was so personally motivated to do something artistically based upon the information that they had learned was really enriching.”
Work That Makes a Difference
For Cecilia, the small moments matter too, including the students’ reflections she reads at the end of every semester.
“They find that their learning has changed their perspective on the place of women in history. And I feel that same sense of, ‘Wow, this is amazing. The work that I do is important.’ I feel like what I’m doing matters.”
Connecting With Students
What she loves most about working at a community college is the relationships she builds.
“I try really hard to get to know everyone’s name, and it’s something that I work on in that very first week,” she says. “So that they feel like there’s somebody there who they engage with, who knows them by name and recognizes if they’re there or if they’re not there, or if they need some help.”
She believes that level of connection can change a student’s trajectory.
“I love working with them, because I feel like many of them might be in the same situation that I was, and you need somebody—just that friendly face—to let you know that you can do this.”
Life Beyond the Classroom
Outside of work, Cecilia spends her time with family and in her garden.
“I’m a historian of agriculture and of gardening and of women’s work in agriculture, so I love to think about what people have done historically at the same time that I’m trying to create my own garden,” she says. “Learning about the Colorado climate and how I can produce my own food is really fun to do.”
In addition, her two children have both attended FRCC, making the college a meaningful part of their family life.
A Legacy of Curiosity and Care
Whether she’s leading a discussion on women’s history or mentoring a student years after graduation, Cecilia Gowdy-Wygant brings care and commitment to everything she does.
