Students Receive Build Dakota Scholarships

The Build Dakota Scholarship board has selected 285 students as recipients of the Build Dakota Scholarship for the 2017-2018 school year.

The scholarships cover tuition and fees, books, equipment and other related program expenses for eligible programs with eight high need industry areas at South Dakota’s four technical institutes. Recipients were selected from a total of 1,028 applications.

The Tripp County area students selected include: Noah Hermsen of Colome, a scholarship to Mitchell Technical Institute; Jacob Woods, Winner, Western Dakota Tech; Spencer Earll, Wood, Lake Area Technical Institute.

The Build Dakota Scholarship program was announced in late 2014. The scholarship is funded by a $25 million donation from T. Denny Sanford and $25 million in future funds committed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

Build Dakota aims to support students entering high need workforce programs at South Dakota’s technical institutions to fill the state’s technical career fields with skilled professionals. The $50 million will provide approximately 300 full scholarships annually in each of the first five years of the scholarship program.

Scholarship recipients must commit to stay in South Dakota to work in their field of study for three years following graduation.