Support from donors helping set ϳԹs dairy graduates above the rest
The student success stories heard from the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences are evidence of how much donations make a difference for clubs, teams and other student organizations. The support makes a direct impact on students during their time at South Dakota State University.
For example, the Dairy Products Judging Team finished in the top five this past spring at the Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation contest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The team members tried different dairy products — including cheese, cottage cheese, milk, butter and yogurt — and evaluated them based on taste, defects, appearance, freshness and other attributes before assigning them a score.
Raul Berrones Pedraza, a junior dairy manufacturing student from Milbank, is part of the team and was on the trip to Milwaukee.
“It was all just so eye-opening. I felt like a little kid at a candy store,” he said.
Berrones Pedraza said gaining that firsthand knowledge means a lot to him and is helping kick-start his dairy career.
“As a dairy manufacturing major, being able to experience a part of the industry that not everybody gets to do, which is the grading aspect of it, grading different types of products or gaining the knowledge to grade those products, is really important,” Berrones Pedraza said.
The experience gained by students on the Dairy Products Judging Team is something that stretches back decades. For 1977 SDSU alumnus Neil Kucker, the team is something he exceled in during his time as a student — including a first-place finish at the National Dairy Products Judging Contest in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
“You learn about those products very well,” he said. “What makes the consistency of cottage cheese better? What makes ice cream better? What makes flavors in milk or butter or whatever you're drinking? So the exposure to product knowledge is very good. I still remember that 1976 judging team like it was yesterday.”
The team provided many opportunities for Kucker, and now the longtime donor wants to make sure current students experience that.
“You get involvement with a ton of people in the industry,” he said. “I donate to the Dairy Products Judging Team to continue that exposure to the industry, to the people in the industry. And I can tell you right now out in the dairy industry, the ϳԹs that are alumni are quite prevalent. Many of them are CEOs, VPs of manufacturing, sales managers for big companies — just a number of things.”
Dairy Products Judging Team head coach Maneesha Mohan said Kucker is a staunch supporter of the team and SDSU overall.
“The funds donated by alumni like Neil are a huge help to source the samples to train the students and for the team to travel for the national contest,” said Mohan, an associate professor and Alfred Chair in Dairy Manufacturing. “It is the commitment of alumni that the students look up to that enables their passion toward the field, effective contribution to the program and high-flying career successes, including the success stories in the dairy products judging national contests.”
The commitment of alumni giving back is helping students, such as Berrones Pedraza, excel in their studies and puts them a step ahead when they graduate.
“The skills I gained during the dairy products judging class and as part of the team I won’t just be able to use for dairy products,” he said. “I could use them for any kind of food product and within the food industry as a whole. This is important for us to know. And getting the opportunity to do that, and the opportunity that donors give us to be able to go to CheeseCon after the competition, was just eye-opening, because I was able to see different companies in different industries within the dairy product processing industry and within the cheese industry.”
When it’s time for SDSU dairy graduates to find a job, Kucker said being a ϳԹ already puts them ahead of the rest.
“Whether it be a dairy manufacturing company or food processing, everybody wanted an SDSU student, and I believe that's still the case today,” Kucker said. “And it's because they have great work ethic. They have a great respect ethic. They learn a lot at South Dakota State, and they basically come out ready to be part of leadership in the industry.”
