Dear readers,
Do you remember the first time you felt a sense of belonging at NDSU? For me, belonging was built through storytelling.
More than five years ago, I moved from Spokane, Washington, back to my home state of North Dakota to help the NDSU Foundation launch this magazine.
I had just completed a graduate teaching assistantship at Eastern Washington University where I swore off any affiliation to NDSU after student-athletes in my composition class described their heart-wrenching loss to NDSU in the 2019 FCS National Championship.
But today, I feel like a Bison. It’s because sharing the stories of NDSU has helped me build a genuine connection to people, place, and purpose.
I’m thinking about what it feels like to walk past the Babbling Brook on campus after learning that most of the trees and shrubs surrounding it are NDSU releases.
Or how I will never look at legumes the same way again after learning from Dr. Barney Geddes that they produce their own nitrogen — an evolutionary event he and his students are trying to recreate in cereal crops.
Or what it means to know that students on campus have engineering scholarships because former NDSU dean Dr. Joseph Stanislao has joyfully chosen to work into his 90s so that he can continue investing in future generations of engineers.
I hope the stories in this magazine help you feel an even stronger sense of belonging with everyone who calls NDSU their school, alma mater, workplace, and team. It’s because of all of these people (including you!) that we are launching a new name for the magazine: one that captures NDSU’s enduring spirit of community and pride.
Whether you are an alumnus or, like me, a Bison-at-heart, these stories are for everyone who is rooting for NDSU.
Welcome to Herd.
Sincerely,
Micaela Gerhardt
Editor of Storytelling and Development Communications
NDSU Foundation
Margaret and her husband, Hugh Veit ’79, established the Eleanor S. Fitzgerald Memorial Graduate Student Scholarship to support NDSU students earning advanced degrees in the Department of Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences or the Department of Human Development and Family Science.
Core areas of home economics remain part of current NDSU degree programs such as accounting; apparel, retail merchandising, and design; education; family and consumer science; financial planning; human development and family science; interior design; and nutrition science.
Home economics programs opened doors, particularly for women, to earn college degrees and pursue careers in education, Extension, state and federal government, business and industry, health care, and more. NDAC listed domestic economy as one of its courses in its founding year, 1890.
Established by Dr. Teresa Conner, dean of the NDSU College of Health and Human Sciences, and co-chaired by Dr. Margaret Fitzgerald ’83 and Col. Esther Meyers ’75, the Wisdom Keepers provide support and share their knowledge and expertise with students, faculty, staff, and leadership in the College.
The home management house at NDAC was the first facility built on a college campus specifically for home management practice. In 1954, it was named in honor of Alba Bales, the first female academic dean at NDAC.
