South Dakota State University

At age 7, boys and girls dream about being the next Neil Armstrong, Taylor Swift or Michael Phelps. By middle school, or certainly by high school, those dreams have become faded memories for almost everyone. Liam Murray, an SDSU swimmer and mechanical engineering graduate student, is among the exceptions.

Four South Dakota State University seniors are presenting their Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis exhibition on campus this month. The exhibition, titled "Visual Voyages," is set for Feb. 12-23 and will include paintings, printmaking, ceramics and sculptures, which are the work of students Katelyn Engel, Jake Heunisch, Nicole Strande and Shane Waikel.

Arianna Rice, a music education major at South Dakota State University, will present her junior recital at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center's Founders Recital Hall on the SDSU campus.

South Dakota State University's Journal of Undergraduate Research returned to publication for the first time since 2019. The journal is one of the avenues in which students can gain experience in the scholarly publication process and features projects from students, or student groups, in physics, food science and mechanical engineering for its 18th volume.

Over the past three seasons, South Dakota State University's softball team has transcended from a solid program into one of the top mid-major programs in the Midwest. Since the 2021 season, SDSU has lost a total of three regular season conference games and has won the last three regular season Summit League conference titles. Consistency has been key to the Jackrabbits' success, and few players have been more consistent than outfielder Lindsey Culver, who has played and started in over 95% of the games during the team's remarkable run. Culver, who is in her final year with the softball program, has applied her consistent approach to her academic career, where she has been equally successful. The only member of the team majoring in mechanical engineering in the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, Culver has been named to the Summit League's Commissioner's List of Academic Excellence and the Academic Honor Roll.

The South Dakota State University Rodeo Team ended the fall 2023 season with the women's team ranked second and the men's team ranked fourth among 15 schools and 280 contestants represented in the Great Plains Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. The team, under the direction of SDSU Rodeo Coach Ron Skovly, is made up of 45 traveling members who hit the road for five consecutive weekends this season.

National Day of Giving can be the nonprofit equivalent of retailer's Black Friday. However, many smaller agencies don't have the manpower to engage in a robust social media campaign. For five area nonprofits, that need was addressed by students in the Fundraising and Resource Development course at South Dakota State University. The efforts helped the nonprofits raise more than $10,000 on National Day of Giving Nov. 28, according to Kim Gustafson, coordinator of the leadership and management of nonprofit organization's major at SDSU.

Students in the South Dakota State University School of Communication and Journalism completed several projects for various businesses in Sioux Falls this semester. Advertising students presented their work at Startup Sioux Falls on Nov. 30. As part of their Advertising Media Strategies course, students created and pitched individualized social media campaigns to real Sioux Falls businesses.

More than 3,400 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance over the fall 2023 semester at South Dakota State University by being named to the dean's list. To earn dean's list distinctions in SDSU's colleges, students must have completed a minimum of 12 credits and must have earned at least a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Students with F, I, U, RI or RU grades are not eligible regardless of system term GPA attained. Note that this report includes courses that were taken at other South Dakota institutions this term. A minimum of 12 credits within the 100-699 course range must be taken. A student who passes pregeneral education courses may still qualify, if the student has 12 other credits that do fall within the 100-699 range. Overall, 3,475 students from 39 states and 24 foreign nations are on the list. Nearly 1,500 students received a 4.0 GPA, and those are indicated with an asterisk. Congratulations to these distinguished scholars on earning this academic achievement.

Students from SDSU's College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions presented posters at the 2023 Midyear Clinical Meeting of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). The 2023 meeting was held from Dec. 2-7. The ASHP Midyear Meeting is an annual gathering of more than 20,000 pharmacy students and professionals. Posters are presented by pharmacy professionals, residents, fellows and students on a variety of pharmacy-related topics.

NASA has narrowed the field to six in its lunar soil excavating contest, and a team of students from South Dakota State University is among the group left in the hunt for a $1 million top prize. Conceived in 2020, the Break the Ice Lunar Challenge tasked innovators with creating robotic systems that can navigate the rugged terrain of the Lunar South Pole, dig up its icy soil and transport it to another location, where, in theory, water could be extracted from the soil. There were two earlier design and prototype phases in which SDSU advanced. In the latest stage, SDSU was one of 15 finalists invited to give their prototypes a 15-day test.

When it comes to electrical engineering scholarship, the program at South Dakota State University could be considered the standard of the power grid. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has announced the 2023-24 recipients of the Power and Energy Society Scholarships. For the second year in a row, SDSU dominated. The nine current selections are one better than the mark the program set last year. The list includes four repeat winners and five newcomers.

Ellise Otheim, a first-year nursing student at South Dakota State University, is the recipient of a $5,000 Sanford Health Military and Veteran Scholarship. Otheim, a sophomore from Hartford, was surprised with a scholarship announcement during her Professional Nursing Concepts class on Nov. 13, as representatives from Sanford and SDSU stormed the Wagner Hall classroom with balloons and a giant check.

South Dakota State University juniors Joseph Cassady, clarinet, and Avery Retzer, soprano, will present a recital at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 20, in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center's Founders Recital Hall on the SDSU campus.

The South Dakota State University School of Design was selected this past spring to propose a master plan for a new community park in Chamberlain. After months of preparation, the final proposal was presented to and endorsed by community partners and the Chamberlain City Council this fall to begin the next step of development and implementation.

Andrew Ellis, a senior majoring in music education, will present his senior recital at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center's Founders Recital Hall on the South Dakota State University campus.

The South Dakota State University aviation program hosted students from the Sioux Falls School District's Career and Technical Education Academy on a recent visit to the Brookings Regional Airport.

Professional sports, whether it be playing in or working for, is a goal for many high school and college students across the country. A pair of South Dakota State University students spent this past summer interning for professional sports teams.

Nick Lange, a music education major at South Dakota State University, will present his junior recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center's Founders Recital Hall on the SDSU campus.

Haley Dahl, a senior majoring in music education, will present her senior recital at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22, in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center's Founders Recital Hall on the South Dakota State University campus.

The South Dakota State University Concert Choir will present its Scandinavian Northern Lights-themed concert this weekend with a performance celebrating the group's upcoming trip to Sweden and Norway.

Two South Dakota State University School of Design seniors will display their Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis exhibition in the Ritz Gallery on campus for the next two weeks. The public exhibit, "Tangibly False," features the work of Cassidy Hunt and Matthew Scott, including printmaking, drawing, sculpture and other works on canvas. These works explore themes of life and existence and are on display from Oct. 16-27.

The Friday, Sept. 22, presentation of Puccini's "La Boheme" brings an internationally-recognized opera troupe to South Dakota State University. Designed to demystify the art form and present accomplished musicians both on stage and in the pit orchestra, the show will provide opportunities for 30 Jackrabbit students to perform in the world's most frequently presented opera.

The following students graduated after the spring 2023 semester at South Dakota State University. More than 1,400 students completed all requirements for a degree and/or certificate program, and those requirements have been verified by the appropriate college. Overall, students from 27 states and 20 nations graduated following the spring 2023 semester. More than 50 students received two or more degrees or certificates from a college.

South Dakota State University engineering students used down-to-earth knowledge to design an out-of-this-world lunar transport vehicle which won them a NASA-sponsored contest. The SDSU team was one of 15 teams selected as a finalist in NASA'S Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts - Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition. Finalists were grouped in four categories. SDSU was one of four universities chosen as finalists in the Lunar Surface Transporter Vehicle category along with Maryland, Texas and Virginia Tech.

More than 3,000 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance over the spring 2023 semester at South Dakota State University by being named to the dean's list. To earn dean's list distinctions in SDSU's colleges, students must have completed a minimum of 12 credits and must have earned at least a 3.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Students with F, I, U, RI or RU grades are not eligible regardless of system term GPA attained. Note that this report includes courses that were taken at other South Dakota institutions this term. A minimum of 12 credits within the 100-699 course range must be taken. A student who passes pregeneral education courses may still qualify, if the student has 12 other credits that do fall within the 100-699 range. Overall, 3,043 students from 37 states and 20 foreign nations are on the list. More than 1,300 students received a 4.0 GPA, and those are indicated with an asterisk. Congratulations to these distinguished scholars on earning this academic achievement.

South Dakota State University has pulled out another national championship-this one in the field of quarter-scale tractors. While the football team grabbed a lot of attention with its first-ever Football Championship Series national title in January, the students on the quarter-scale tractor team brought home national honors for the second year in a row and third time in the past five years. They were competing in the International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition organized by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, which held the annual contest June 1-4 at the Expo Gardens Fairgrounds in Peoria, Illinois.

South Dakota State University held its annual Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Day April 20 in the University Student Union's Volstorff Ballroom. In addition to selecting top student performances, the university announced the recipients of the Schultz-Werth Awards and the Joseph F. Nelson Undergraduate Research Mentorships. URSCAD is organized by SDSU's Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College.

Tackling a complicated bridge-building project with an inexperienced crew, a group of civil engineering students from South Dakota State University figured out how to span the Sweetwater River near San Diego and qualified for a national competition. The American Society of Civil Engineers began the student steel bridge competition in 1987, challenging student teams to develop a scale-model steel bridge to fit a given hypothetical environment. Each team must determine how to design and fabricate a bridge and then plan for an efficient assembly under timed construction at a competition. Bridges are then load-tested and weighed. SDSU students competed in the Mid-America Student Symposium at Kansas State University in Manhattan April 15, finishing third and qualifying for nationals in San Diego June 2-3.

Five mechanical engineering students at South Dakota State University had their project selected for the finals of a NASA contest, meaning all three of the department's entries in three different NASA contests have advanced to the finals. "This honor again reflects the solid skills our students are gaining and the dedication of our students and faculty to pursue student success beyond the classroom walls," Yucheng Liu, head of the SDSU Department of Mechanical Engineering, said.