Greetings from the SDSU Dairy and Food Science Department! In this past year since I started in June 2024, I have been overwhelmed with the amazing support that our department receives from all of you!
One example of this support is our annual departmental scholarship banquet where we celebrate the generosity of our donors, the accomplishments of our students, and the dedication of our faculty and staff. Scholarships are a wonderful tool for our department to work to recruit and retain more students and to reward our
hard-working students. We greatly appreciate the support of our donors and welcome your continued support. Donations can be made here: (Donation · South Dakota State University Foundation · GiveCampus). Please contact myself or Mark Sandager of the SDSU Foundation if you have questions about supporting our department.
We are pleased to share with you many exciting things that have been and will be
happening in our department in this our third edition of our quarterly newsletter. Feel
free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested.
Please reach out if you would like to visit about our department.
For a full list of current faculty and staff visit the link below.
We Are Hiring
We are currently searching for a new Extension Food Processing Field Specialist I. Please consider applying or spread the word to anyone that you think would be a good fit and interested. More information & to apply click below.
Dr. Sanjeev Anand, professor, was awarded the F.O. Butler Award for Excellence in Teaching in February 2025.
Dr. Maneesha Mohan, Alfred Chair in Dairy Manufacturing and Associate Professor, was awarded the Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award in February 2025.
Nanobubble Research
Dr. Maneesha Mohan is utilizing a simple but innovative technology to help dairy plants treat their wastewater: nanobubbles. Mohan received funding in 2022 through the South Dakota Water Resources Institute to investigate the application of nanobubble technology in dairy wastewater treatment.
Dr. Maristela Rovai, an associate professor and extension specialist in our department, has written an article on understanding milk leakage in dairy cows that has been published in the Central Plains Dairy Expo newsletter. This article summarizes key findings on the causes of milk leakage and offers practical strategies for dairy workers to understand its occurrence on farms.
~A word from Cheyenne Edmundson (Coordinator Recruitment and Academic Services)
South Dakota has expanded full in-state tuition to WI, MN, MO, KS, & IL residents. This, as well as generous scholarships, are a big attraction for students, particularly scholarships that begin their first year at SDSU and are continuous their 2nd, 3rd, & 4th year given they stick to a specific program, dairy manufacturing for example.
This spring brought a tremendous opportunity to expand our reach to more prospective students. I attended the Wisconsin State FCCLA conference with great interactions to ignite curiosity in our academic programs. Hands-on activities are strongly desired as well as hearing career path examples from industry and alumni. Below is a list of events we attended this school year, we encourage industry to table at regional/local events as well and share their academic and career experiences. If you would like to join any of these career-based expos, partner for an educational workshop, or have department branded marketing materials mailed to you, contact Cheyenne or call/text at 605-254-7818.
Outreach Events attended
State FCCLA Conventions (IA, WI, SD)
State FFA Conventions (SD, WI, IL, & MN) + National FFA
We are gearing up for our annual One Day For State event on September 5th. We appreciate the support our alumni and industry partners shared with us last year including sharing their stories as former Dairy & Food Science students, interacting with our posts on social media, sponsoring judging teams and scholarships for our undergraduate students. Your generosity has strongly impacted our recruitment & retention efforts too! Follow our social media pages to stay in the loop on this big event & many other activities that will kick off our Fall 2025 semester - resharing content is a great way to spread the word about our academic programs!
Graduation
The 2025 graduation commencement took place on May 10th. The Dairy and Food Science Department had a celebration for the graduates in our department on May 6th including cake and ice cream.
Our 2025 graduates included undergraduate students: Zachary Nyland, Jasmine Endmundson, Briana Maus, Makenna Skiff, Mason Nagel, Sam Czech, Josephine Sutherland, Ellary Jacoby and Caitlin Swanson; as well as graduate students: Rakesh Kaushik, Maryam Wahab, Fatimah Alsaeed and Hojjat Abdollahikhamene.
Alumni in the News
The 101st National Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest in Madison, WI on April 16, 2025 was dedicated to Matthew Siedschlaw (SDSU Dairy Manufacturing- 2002). In 2000, Matt won the All Products and Butter categories, and placed third in Ice Cream to help SDSU take 2nd place that year. Since then, Matt has served as a butter judge and a key behind the scenes contributor and then applying his leadership as the contest superintendent in 2023 and 2024.
See what Anna Donnay, a 2021 Dairy Manufacturing and Dairy Production double majored alumnus, is doing now.
Two of our graduate students, Vaishali Poswal and Sumi Regmi, competed in the Speedy Science Competition and successfully pitched their research work in 3 minutes. Vaishali placed 3rd and Sumi placed 2nd. This event was organized and sponsored by the University of Minnesota Chapter: Phi Tau Sigma Honor Society. This is an excellent way to sharpen science communication skills and provide greater accessibility to research.
Vaishali's research focuses on assessing the influence of background microflora on the persistence of Listeria in the dairy processing environment, within the research lab group and advisement of Dr. Sanjeev Anand.
Sumi's doctoral research, under the advisement of Dr. Srinivas Janaswamy, focuses on biodegradable films from soy hulls to address plastic perils and preserve strawberries.
American Chemical Society Awards Banquet
The spring American Chemical Society awards banquet was held April 5, 2025. Two SDSU graduate students, Sandeep Paudel and Sumi Regmi, received The Graduate Student Research Excellence Award. Sandeep Paudel is also featured in the Graduate Student Spotlight.
SDSU Dairy Club members traveled to Puerto Rico in April on a 5 day trip. They visited multiple places including El Remanso Farms, El Yunque National Rainforest, the Don Q Rum distillery, touring around Old San Juan, the beach, and more.
From Left: Jessemy Sharp, Maneesha Mohan, Lauren Steffl, Brianna Moss, Tucker Anderson, Emma Mulhern, Zeel Modi, Caitlin Swanson
The SDSU Dairy Products Judging team competed at the Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest in Madison, WI in April and placed 2nd overall! The undergraduate team; Lauren Steffl, Tucker Anderson, Brianna Moss, and Emma Mulhern; won 1st place in butter grading. The graduate student, Zeel Modi, won first place in all products. The team was coached by Dr. Maneesha Mohan, SDSU Associate Professor in Dairy Manufacturing and Alfred Chair in Dairy Education, assisted by Ting Mao, Caitlin Swanson, Jessemy Sharp.
The SDSU Dairy Cattle Judging Team recently competed at the North American College and Teachers of Agriculture Contest. The team placed first overall! Evelyn Scheffler was high individual, Vanessa Gonzalez was 3rd overall and 1st in reasons, and Dillion Sparrgrove placed 10th. The team is coached by Dr. Turner Swartz.
From Left: Evelyn Scheffler, Dillion Sparrgrove, and Vanessa Gonzalez
Back Left: Maristela Rovai, Randall Winch, Hayley Daubert, Lynn Boadwine. Front Left: Briana Maus, Emma Eggenberger
The SDSU Dairy Challenge Judging team recently competed at the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge Contest in Gainsville, FL. The team placed 4th overall. Note that the team was 1 point out of second place. The team includes Randall Winch, Hayley Daubert, Briana Maus, Emma Eggenberger; academy team members (not pictured): Evelyn Scheffler, Dillion Sparrgrove, Andrew Czech and Lauren Steffl (social media corps). Coaches are Maristela Rovai and Lynn Boadwine, SD Dairy Producer.
All of our judging teams appreciate your support! Judging teams are a great opportunity for students to develop useful skills for their future. If you are interested in supporting our judging teams to help with travel expenses or in other ways, please contact the coach of that team. More information about the teams current and previous results are available from: Judging Teams | South Dakota State University
For more student updates, visit our Open Prairie news archives for access to the newsletters sent out to students weekly during the school year. These newsletters contain student accomplishments, upcoming events, job opportunities and more.
Dairy and Food Science Scholarships and Awards Banquet
The 2025 Dairy and Food Science Scholarships and Awards Banquet was held on April 14th at Club 71 at the Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium on the SDSU campus. There were 185 people in attendance, including students and their families, alumni, producers, processors, supporting industry personnel, faculty, staff, university administration, and friends. One hundred fifty-two scholarships and awards were presented directly from the Dairy and Food Science Department totaling over $155,000 to undergraduate and gradate students in Dairy and Food Science.
Membrane Filtration Workshop
A membrane filtration short course/workshop is presented annually by the North Central Cheese Industry Association (NCCIA), in conjunction with our department . This workshop will provide the industry with both theoretical and practical aspects of membranes and their cleaning. This year it was held on June 17th, 2025 in Brookings, SD. Another workshop is planned for next year, for more information, please contact Susan Eschbach or Prafulla Salunke.
Calendar
June-August: New Student Orientation
June 22-25: American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY
June 25: Alta Genetics tour stop
June 26: I-29 Legend-Dairy Golf Tournament, Lake Poinsett, SD
July 13-16: Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL
July 30: Central Plains Dairy Foundation Golf Tournament, Dell Rapids, SD
July 30-31: Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center Meeting, Roseville, MN
August 21: Valley Queen board tour of department
August 25: SDSU Classes Start
September 5: One Day for State
September 27: Dairy Drive football game
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