Successfully engaging students with a community college's introductory biology curriculum is a challenging endeavor. Students have numerous distractions competing with faculty for their attention. Traditional presentation of information may leave students longing for something more engaging to do, and the place where most college-level instruction happens lacks relevance to either the course content or the students' lived experiences. The result may be that educators are failing in front of students. This is not because of failure to recognize the importance of engaging students. Rather, either students have never been asked what they want in terms of an instructional experience or instructors are reluctant to leave their comfort zone and make large-scale changes to their pedagogies. For this paper, the authors explored the ideas of engagement and place at a midsize community college. They found that students have thoughtful opinions about each and are frustrated with some aspects of the current instruction. This article provides a brief review of research on engagement and place, reflections on student interviews, and recommendations for improving instruction.