Dakota State University

Lisa Leuning '02

Multimedia/Web Design (BS)

Lisa Leuning learned about computer programming, design, marketing, and a lot more when she attended DSU.

Leuning, known by her maiden name Hubbell when she attended DSU, is a 2002 graduate who earned two degrees, a BS in Multimedia/Web Design, and a BS in English for Information Systems.

“I may not have been sure what I wanted to do with my degrees when I graduated, but having the variety of coursework allowed me to steer my career in the direction I wanted,” she said.

DSU’s strong reputation for being a forward-thinking, technology-focused school with great placement rates drew Leuning, a Madison native, to attending Dakota State.

The English classes she took while at DSU helped her be able to proof materials well, which resulted in employment.

“My second job out of college had an editing test during the job interview and I was the applicant that scored the highest. I’m not sure if I would’ve gotten the job if I hadn’t scored the highest – so I think you can safely say my English classes helped me get that job and move me into my marketing career.”

While Leuning started out as a technical writer, she later moved on to work marketing jobs at two companies in Sioux Falls. “I worked at Paulsen Marketing, which focuses on agricultural marketing, and then worked at Insight Marketing Design.”

She ultimately moved on to Avera Health where she works as Director of Marketing, Strategy, and Product growth.

“I’ve now been with Avera for over six years and that is where I have found my passion in health care marketing,” she said. “Using the skills I have acquired over the years and being able to market a company whose mission is truly about helping others fills my bucket every day.”

In her position she manages a team of marketing strategists, calling them “some of the most creative people in the health care industry.” Together they develop marketing strategies for several areas at Avera, such as Avera Health Plans, Avera PACE, and Avera@Home.

Some campaigns focus on branding and awareness, while others focus on driving volume and leads to our sales teams, she explained. The team recently won Best of Show award for the Insurance Marketing & Communications Association for their Avera Health Plans campaign.

“Getting to work with such talented and dedicated people makes my job very enjoyable,” Leuning said.

Her day-to-day work involves a lot of meetings that allow her to talk with the experts at Avera to really understand the goals of each department. She also meets with the internal marketing team to make sure they’re supported and able to bring forth new and innovative ideas, she said.

Leuning finds marketing to be one of the best fields to work in because nothing stays the same and it is ever-evolving.

“It can be challenging because everyone has an opinion about marketing, but in the world today you can use A/B [comparison] testing and real-time data to determine what works best for each target audience and continue to refine marketing campaigns until you get the results you are looking for,” she said. “And this industry allows you to take risks and try new things. We always ask, ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ and make decisions from there.”

For current students, Leuning offers some advice: be kind to everyone, continue learning, read more books, and “enjoy and embrace your time at college – but be very cautious what you put on social media.”

Multimedia/Web Design Minor

English for New Media (BS)

Karen Hildebrand '03

’03 BS in Marketing; ’04 MS in Information Systems; ’12 PhD in Information Systems

Karen Hildebrand came to Dakota State from Canada, not quite sure what career to pursue.

She had an interested in technology, and received an academic and athletic scholarship for softball here, so for her, “DSU was an awesome fit.”

“I really loved my time at DSU,” and her three degrees prepared her well to be successful.

A fourth-generation farmer, Hildebrand is now the Worldwide Technology Leader for the Agriculture Industry at Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company recently featured her in a recruiting video in which she discusses ways technology is being used with agriculture, and how cloud technologies help industries. Hildebrand also hosts the company’s technical livestream “All in the Field.”

“Sometimes there are misperceptions about how much technology is involved in farming, and how food gets to the table, so hopefully the video addresses ways we can break down those barriers,” she said. 

It’s interesting to think about the ways technology is used, and all the diversity that makes up every industry, she stated. “People need to see the potential paths they can take, and know that if you’re really passionate, you can be a global technical leader.”

For Hildebrand, it’s important to determine the next generational skills that will sustain multi-generation farms. In addition to past skills, she references add-on skill sets with technology, such as computer vision, or robotics applications that include picking apples with robotic arms, and animal health monitoring.

There are some concerns about workforce displacement with technological advances, but she said “there is so much room for humans to be in the loop in everything that is artificial intelligence and machine learning. The only way models get better is if humans remain involved.”

She also noted that in ag there isn’t a huge growing population of people who want to become farmers, “so we’re at risk if we don’t augment the labor force that we have with jobs that are rewarding as a human.”

DSU has new degrees that address these opportunities, in Artificial Intelligence and  Artificial Intelligence for Organizations. DSU also offers a PhD in Computer Science, offered jointly with South Dakota State University, with areas of emphasis in machine learning, analytics, and precision ag.

“Everything I learned at DSU I use on an almost daily basis,” she stated. Her 2003 marketing degree gave her an understanding of digital user engagement; her 2004 master’s degree in information systems brought experience with the technology underlying purpose-built databases and SQL databases. Her 2012 PhD experience in information systems helped her gain confidence with research and expanding what’s possible in making new contributions to the field.

“I feel really confident that I can speak intelligently and be the voice in the room that explains how this works technically, and why it impacts ag.”

Hildebrand said, “that’s what I rely on most, knowing that I’m doing things that have not been done before, and I am confident that I can innovate by applying rigorous research standards to break down barriers.”

College of Business and Information Systems

Nathan Ord '23

Cyber Operations (BS)

Nathan Ord was inspired to attend Dakota State University by his high school counselor, Andrew Franklin, in Elburn, Ill.

“He first told me about DSU after he had recently visited,” Ord said. “He told me about the growing cybersecurity program and the comfortable campus size, all of which had me intrigued.”

After Ord graduated high school in 2018, he attended community college for two years to complete his general requirements. He is now earning his bachelor’s degree in Cyber Operations and master’s in Computer Science at Dakota State.

“I appreciate the growth mindset and comradery everyone seems to have,” Ord said of DSU. “This leads to a great learning environment and strong personal development in and out of the classroom.”

Since transferring to DSU, Ord has become involved on campus. He started by joining DSU Esports. He is the social media coordinator, sending out tweets and running live streams, among other things.

“Esports is a constantly evolving landscape that also has a plethora of possibilities,” he said. “It’s not just gaming as some may think, as there is management, scheduling, public relations, team building, and much more involved.”

Additionally, Ord is the president of the Student Senate, where he and fellow students look for ways to make the campus a better place.

He recommends all students get involved with something. “Barring anything else, showing that you are a good all-around person and have soft skills looks great on a résumé,” he said. “Besides that, being a college student to me means being a part of the campus and community.”

There are over 35 student-run clubs, as well as institutional organizations, academic teams, and honor societies for students to participate in. “But if one doesn’t fit, you can make your own as well,” Ord added.

Cyber Operations (BS)

Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS)

Gabe Simao '22

Computer Game Design (BS)

After the successful production of the game 3 O’clock Horror, Gabe Simao is converting the existing system designed for a keyboard and mouse to a touchscreen interface for mobile devices. He is a Game Design and Computer Science major from Brazil.

This is part of his Student Research Initiative (SRI) grant to complete the conversion to a mobile game.

“The completion of this process will allow for a direct comparison of user engagement on both platforms,” Simao wrote in his grant application. “This data will also provide insight into the performance of the game on each of the platforms.”

The game 3 O’clock Horror was created through a game design class. Simao, who had the initial idea for 3 O’clock Horror, led a team of students to produce the game over the course of the 2020-21 school year. Each member of the team had a specialty area such as programming, level design, artwork, and narrative, but students were able to gain experience with everything.

Simao’s idea for 3 O’clock Horror came from a video game called Faith. “It’s a dark, horror, minimalistic style that I really liked,” he said.

The team also took inspiration from games Resident Evil and Outlast. In addition to game style, the narrative part of the game was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, a cosmic horror writer from the early 1900s.

What results is a game that begins in the dark of night with a foreboding wind and snow. The player must gain entrance to the mansion, where they will continue their journey to solve the mystery of what happened. Depending on how players solve the puzzles they can end up with three different endings.

Throughout the school year, the students were able to workshop the game and have people test play to provide feedback. They took that feedback and worked to create a better game. “That’s the one thing that drives us to success,” Simao said.

After workshopping and completing the game, the students took the opportunity to place their game on the gaming platform STEAM. It costs $100 to add a game to STEAM, a team member agreed to pay the fee.

Last spring, Simao completed the documentation and uploading of the game to the platform. It went live on June 19, 2021. Since then, there have been several thousand downloads of the game.

This fall, he submitted the game to the Independent Games Festival (IGF) on behalf of the team to compete in the Best Student Game category. In January, they will find out if their game made it to the list of nominees.

 In the meantime, Simao will continue working with his professors on the creation of the mobile game version.

“There are some differences between the PC and mobile platforms, so there’s code that must be modified or rewritten,” said Erik Pederson, Assistant Professor of Game Design. “There’s a good amount of work to be done, it’s not a simple port.”

Simao will spend time figuring out what from the computer game works in a mobile version and adapting the gameplay as needed. Touch and scrolling will be integral parts of the mobile version.

“Having the ability to say that he’s developed the product for the PC environment, then rebuilt it for the mobile market is a huge bonus for him as he nears graduation,” Pederson said.

Simao hopes this will expand the game’s audience. “I’m hoping for more downloads than we got in the computer version.”

Computer Game Design (BS)

Josh Pauley '22

Business Marketing (BBA)

Growing up in a business family and an interest in innovative industries inspired Josh Pauley to major in business marketing.

“What I’ve enjoyed most about the marketing program is the knowledge I keep building semester after semester,” Pauley said.

The senior from Flandreau, SD, appreciates all that Asst. Professor Deb Tech and Instructor Wendy Simmermon have taught him.

He also likes the collaborative part of marketing, noting some of his best experiences in the program have been working on group projects and networking.

Beyond working together, the marketing courses at DSU have exposed Pauley to a variety of software that is used in the industry. He’s gained experience in QuickBooks, Microsoft Office, OneNote, HootSuite, and Google Garage, even earning certification in some.

He took a marketing research class this past summer where he was able to experiment with Tableau software.

“This software can pretty much put together any analytics you have and project it in one picture,” Pauley explained.

He’s been able to utilize Tableau at his management marketing internship with Ramsdell F&M, a private, family-owned co-op in Flandreau. Pauley worked there throughout the summer and is working part-time this fall. His role with the business includes running marketing campaigns on social media, updating the website, and connecting with print publications for advertising.

Through his work with Ramsdell F&M, he’s learned a lot about graphic design, gaining experience in Adobe Elements to create advertisements. Additionally, he worked on creating videos to showcase the different agricultural elements to the business, highlighting crop scouting, crop spraying, and a crop day event.

DSU prepared Pauley for the internship through the teaching of ethics, understanding community, and being able to read numbers for accounting and business statistics.

Pauley’s advice for fellow and future marketing majors is to be innovative and work hard. “Don’t sit back and let opportunity pass you by.”

Business Marketing (BBA)

Natalie Van Wyhe '20

Exercise Science (BS)

A lifelong long dream of becoming a firefighter has come true for Natalie Van Wyhe. A May 2020 graduate, Van Wyhe was inspired by her father, who served as a volunteer fireman in her hometown of Canton, SD.

“When I walked into Dakota State, I told them right away what my plans were and they were very helpful getting me there,” Van Wyhe said.

She completed her exercise science degree in just three years so she could get on the 2020 hiring schedule for firefighters in Sioux Falls, SD.

Van Wyhe appreciated the small program size, which allowed her to form close relationships with her professors. Exercise Science faculty members Kari Hall and Dr. Scott Staiger both had a positive impact on Van Wyhe.

Hall helps students pair up with tutors if they’re struggling with science classes, and encourages students to find what they are good at and capitalize that throughout the program, Van Wyhe explained.

Staiger helped her get an internship at the Madison Community Center, where she worked as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor.

Hall and Staiger also let Van Wyhe build assignments and projects around her goal of becoming a firefighter. This let her have a more individualized plan, while many of her classmates focused on athletic training and physical therapy career goals.

“Both of the professors have been good about checking in on me and where I’m at with my dream,” she said.

Additionally, Career and Professional Development assisted her with building her résumé and creating cover letters.

“Dakota State has been a huge asset in getting me hired and feeling more comfortable even just with interviews,” she shared. Her education at DSU prepared her for the process of becoming a firefighter.

The application process for firefighters opened in July 2020, followed by a civil service exam. After Van Wyhe passed the exam, she moved on to the interviewing process, followed by the physical ability test, which is done to make sure that the applicant is physically ready for the demands of the job. Next, she had to complete drug testing, a background check, and a medical exam. Finally, Van Wyhe got the offer in November 2020 and attended a 16-week training academy.

In mid-May, she graduated from the program and immediately began working – taking medical calls, fire calls, whatever comes in.

In addition to her job as a firefighter, Van Wyhe coaches cross country for Canton High School and has a personal training business, Tenacious Training. Her degree and internship helped prepare her to run her own business and work with clients.

Exercise Science (BS)