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Venita Winterboer, a lecturer in South Dakota State University’s College of Nursing, was honored as the college’s second annual recipient of the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty.

The award provides national recognition and appreciation to nursing faculty for their commitment and inspirational influence on their students.

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DeeAndra Sandgren, vice president of nursing and clinical services for the Good Samaritan Society, holds bachelor’s degrees from ������Ƶ and Black Hills State University.

While it doesn’t show on her resume, she also earned a Life degree while growing up in Lemmon and later living in Rapid City and Spearfish. Sandgren said it’s amazing how useful her multicolored occupational background is in her current role. She has worked as a roofing salesman for her father, been a floral designer, worked as both a bouncer and poker dealer at Deadwood and done other hospitality jobs.

“I’ve met all sorts of different people, so I can relate to all types of people,” said Sandgren, who has spent her entire nursing career with the Good Samaritan Society.

In her current role, she oversees clinical practice and sets the vision for delivering person-centered care for a nursing staff of nearly 6,400 at more than 330 facilities in 17 states from Florida to Hawaii.

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Shianne Ovall’s colleagues praised her leadership, attention to detail, dedication and other attributes when nominating and naming her the South Dakota State University College of Nursing’s recipient of the 2022-23 Civil Service and Professional Staff Award for Excellence.

Ovall has been a full-time civil service employee with the college since February 2018 and serves as a program assistant II.

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The College of Nursing welcomed new faculty and staff in 2023.

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In 2015, South Dakota State University's College of Nursing was having significant issues retaining Native American students. The retention rate hovered around 65%—a troubling number that underlined the many challenges Native Americans have to overcome when pursuing higher education degrees.

Enter Bev Warne, a nursing professional who retired in 2009 after successfully developing a program at Arizona State University to assist Native American/Alaska Native students graduate with a degree in nursing. When ������Ƶ leadership learned that Warne had returned to her native Rapid City, they inquired if she would be interested in creating a similar type of program for ������Ƶ's College of Nursing.

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For much of her 32-year tenure at South Dakota State University’s Hilton M. Briggs Library, Mary Kraljic was a go-to resource for supporting the College of Nursing’s academic and research goals.

That’s why the now librarian emerita was honored with the College of Nursing’s 2022-23 Distinguished Service Award.

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We are well into our fall semester and have had a lot to celebrate this fall. The College of Nursing has been working diligently to establish endowments within the college to provide support to faculty in our teaching, research, and service enterprise across the state. Endowments are transformative within education because they provide a steady stream of funding that helps to improve the student experience while helping to provide critical funding to impact the health and well-being of our citizens.

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Unofficially, Janice Conlee was a nurse educator long before she joined the South Dakota State University faculty as an instructor for the College of Nursing at its Rapid City site in 2013.

Through her work in an emergency room and as a preceptor, she helped students in training or new to their jobs. It was those experiences that convinced her to go back to school and take her career into the classroom for ������Ƶ, where she now serves as a lecturer.

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A name is announced through the loudspeakers and cheers erupt. The blue- and yellow-clad student moves with grace, poise and confidence. At this event, however, there are no spotlights, no smoke effects and no musical fanfare as the lineup is introduced. There will be no highlights of this event on the 10 p.m. news, and you may be hard-pressed to find mention of it on social media platforms.

This is an induction ceremony for the ������Ƶ College of Nursing.

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South Dakota State University's College of Nursing recognizes that lifelong learning promotes excellence in professional practice and personal development. To underline this belief, the college applied for and was granted accreditation by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation in January.

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