South Dakota State University

Judges from NASA and other experts have selected a proposal from a group of South Dakota State University engineering students to compete with 14 other teams in the next stage of the $3.5 million Break the Ice Lunar Challenge. Most of the SDSU students are seniors entering their final semester.

More than 3,200 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance over the fall 2022 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, 3,230 students from 34 states and 20 foreign nations are on the list. Nearly 1,400 students received a 4.0 and those are indicated with an asterisk. Congratulations to these distinguished scholars on earning this academic achievement.

The South Dakota State University Concert Choir will embark on its fall tour, "All Creation Sings," with 11 total performances starting Sunday in Sioux Falls and culminating at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4 with a home concert at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center. The choir, under the direction of Laura Diddle, will perform music that celebrates creation in all forms at venues across South Dakota and Iowa over the next week. The choir's first three performances are in Sioux Falls, starting with a 7:30 p.m. Sunday concert at St. Joseph Cathedral in Sioux Falls. "The Concert Choir is honored to have been invited to sing on the St. Joseph Cathedral Sacred Arts Series," said Diddle, the Paul E. and Doris J. Moriarty Endowed Professor of Choral Activities. To celebrate that space, the concert opens with a contemporary piece, "Hodie!" with pipe organ and accompanied by organist/pianist Angela Hertling. Other pieces include "A Soft Day," "Flower of Beauty," "The Lark in the Clear Air" featuring SDSU assistant professor Elizabeth Robinson on flute, "Shenandoah," "Unclouded Day," Giancarlo Aquilanti's "Ave Maria" and contemporary composer Elizabeth Siegel's "To Be Free." Monday starts with a morning performance at Lincoln High School and an afternoon performance at O'Gorman High School. Then the choir heads to Iowa for a 7:30 p.m. Monday concert at Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City. On Tuesday, the choir has morning performances at Sioux City's East High School and Maple Valley-Anthon Oto School in Mapleton, Iowa, followed by 7:30 p.m. concert at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Osceola, Iowa. Wednesday brings the choir to a morning performance at Clarke Community Schools in Osceola, Iowa, and an afternoon performance at Yankton High School. The singers' day ends with a 7 p.m. concert at Friedens Reformed Church in Tripp. Finally, the choir is back in Brookings for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Larson Memorial Concert Hall on the SDSU campus. No admission will be charged at any concert. "The Concert Choir takes a fall tour every year and looks forward to performing in major metropolitan areas and in small towns in the Midwest," Diddle said. "The singers in the choir come from South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin, and all have been singing since they were quite young. They look forward to representing SDSU across the North Central region." The 70-member Concert Choir serves as the ambassadorial choral ensemble of the Music Department at SDSU. Comprised of SDSU's most gifted and talented vocalists, membership in the choir is contingent upon excellence in musicianship, vocal artistry and dedication.

Two SDSU Wildlife and Fisheries master's students have won the John E. Skinner Memorial Fund award, presented by the American Fisheries Society (AFS). The award, presented at the AFS annual meeting which took place from Aug. 21-25 in Spokane, Washington, with 1,600 attendees, provides monetary travel awards for graduate students to attend. Administered by the AFS Education Section, students active in fisheries or related disciplines are invited to apply. Each year 10 students are selected to win.

Three students from South Dakota State University have been awarded the American Public Health Association's (APHA) Student Champions for Climate Justice Award. The team proposed an academic community experience that "shows how climate change affects health equality." "It is inspiring to see the passion these students have to not only raise awareness about climate justice issues but to move action forward among their academic communities" said Evelyn Maldonado, the APHA center's program associate. SDSU's team includes Madison DeJarlais, a geographic information sciences major; Jaimie Roggenbauer, a student in the Master of Public Health (MPH) program; and Peggy Harper, also an MPH student and an instructor in the geography and geospatial sciences department. Their proposed experience addresses food access and food deserts in South Dakota. Through the project, the team will develop an informational map showing how climate change impacts access to food in South Dakota, along with other educational resources including two podcasts and a trivia game. For Harper, Roggenbauer and Dejarlais, climate change's impact on food access in South Dakota is an important issue. Harper said, "Climate change is global in scale and many don't understand how this global phenomenon can impact our everyday lives. Public health, especially regarding the availability of healthy food, brings climate change to a very personal level." Roggenbauer is a native of South Dakota who enjoys rock climbing in the Black Hills. She said she "can see how climate change has impacted the natural landscape, and especially on our reservation lands." Those living on reservations are one of the populations most impacted by limited food access in the state. "The issues we are discussing here disproportionately affect the Native American community in South Dakota," DeJarlais said. In the rural state of South Dakota, food access has been an issue for many populations and the effects of climate change have exacerbated the need for a solution. According to DeJarlais, the United States is facing a number of public health crises, including "food deserts." A food desert, DeJarlais said, is a "geographic area where there is limited reasonable access to affordable healthy foods." The goal of the project is to create awareness and resources to improve food access in the state. One of the resources to be developed is the creation of maps of food resources. Harper said, "We will map locations of food banks, local farmers' markets, community gardens, urban foraging (if available) and other places that can provide food to local community residents. The maps will also pinpoint areas that are lacking in these food outlets: the food deserts." Harper said the next step is to "create a plan to build our climate justice experience." Their team is working on contacting South Dakota Indigenous leaders and experts in climate change and public health for their input in the development of resources, including the maps and podcasts. "It would be amazing if our work could be utilized by the public to help petition for actual change, like lobbying for community gardens, food drives, food fridges and/or mobile markets," said DeJarlais. She added that there are ways to address the problem of food deserts that do not involve opening a grocery store, which can sometimes harm communities through gentrification. One strategy to increase awareness of the impact of climate change on food access in the state is through the development of two podcasts. For the first podcast, the team is partnering with South Dakota Urban Indian Health to provide educational information on how climate change has impacted and is impacting Indigenous populations. The other is a podcast presentation from SDSU's Master of Public Health core program "Public Health and Native American Communities" that will educate listeners on climate change and how it impacts public health issues in South Dakota. According to Harper, the goal of these podcasts is to "highlight the impact on at-risk populations: Indigenous people and residents living in rural areas of South Dakota. These groups are already at risk for many current public health issues including access to healthy foods." DeJarlais said that the podcasts will "give a voice to those who have been systematically underrepresented and unheard in both the social and political sphere." The team has begun work on the development of these resources and hopes to make them available over the next few months. Through projects like this, public health students and professionals, like Harper, DeJarlais and Roggenbauer, are working hard to combat public health issues created or exacerbated by climate change. The student team will receive $500 to support their proposed experience. Other student team winners hail from Georgetown University, University of Florida, Loyola University Chicago and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "Hint to help your score in the trivia game-some of the answers will be provided within the story map and the podcasts," Harper added. South Dakota State University offers an online Master of Public Health program in collaboration with the University of South Dakota. The program and its expert faculty are committed to supporting local, state, federal and tribal health departments and to graduate students who will go on to improve the state of public health in South Dakota and beyond. To learn more about the program, visit: https://www.sdstate.edu/pharmacy-allied-health-professions/master-public-health.

The South Dakota State University 1/4 Scale Tractor Team was recently named champions of the 2022 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers International 1/4 Scale Tractor Student Design Competition. This year's team competed against 24 teams from across the United States and Canada.

South Dakota State University student Jordan Rusche has been named to the Pulitzer Center's 2022 cohort of 53 Reporting Fellows. The Pulitzer Center awards fellowships to students at its campus consortium partners, which include liberal arts colleges, community colleges, state universities, historically Black colleges and universities, and graduate schools of journalism and public health in the U.S., Canada and Qatar. Each fellow is paired with an adviser-a Pulitzer Center grantee with special expertise in the fellow's topic or reporting destination. Pulitzer Center editors also provide mentoring in reporting, writing and multimedia. Rusche, a senior from Bancroft, will look at Native American education in South Dakota. Her reporting will examine legislative efforts to improve education in tribal communities and also systemic and political barriers faced by tribal nations. Rusche was the editor-in-chief at The Collegian, SDSU's student newspaper, for the 2021-22 academic year and will be the co-editor for the 2022-23 academic year. "This fellowship puts Jordan in elite company and it provides her with an excellent challenge that will make her an even better young reporter," said Jim Helland '86/M.S. '12, an instructor in SDSU's School of Communication and Journalism. "The topic she has chosen related to Native American education is a story that needs to be told. I can't wait to read her final product." "It's a great honor to be able to represent SDSU and South Dakota through my reporting this fall," Rusche said. "I'm excited to meet the other fellows and learn about the great articles they are going to share as well." As a fellow, Rusche will also take part in the center's Washington Weekend in October. Including Rusche, the last five SDSU fellows were: 2021 - Wren Murphy 2019 - Laura Butterbrodt 2017 - Palak Barmaiya 2016 - Makenzie Huber

More than 3,000 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance over the spring 2022 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, more than 3,070 students from 35 states and 22 foreign nations are on the list. Nearly 1,400 students received a 4.0 and those are indicated with an asterisk. Congratulations to these distinguished scholars on earning this academic achievement.

The following students graduated after the spring 2022 semester at South Dakota State University. The more than 1,500 students listed below completed all requirements for a degree and/or certificate program and those requirements have been verified by the appropriate college. Overall, students from 33 states and 20 nations graduated following the spring 2022 semester. More than 100 students received two or more degrees or certificates from a college.

The following people recently were initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.

The following people recently were initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.

The following people recently were initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.