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Dean's Welcome

Greetings from the Fishback Honors College

Thank you for your interest in Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College at South Dakota State University. We serve as an engine of opportunity to elevate, enrich and enliven the student experience at SDSU. Honors is a dynamic community designed to enable talented, motivated students in any major to make the most of their academic experience at SDSU. Rich experiential and service-learning opportunities contribute to an incredible journey of self-discovery and rich academic experience. Through participation in Honors, our scholars develop as life-long learners and leaders.   

Honors is about joining in a community of students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds who share in a love of learning, celebrating diversity and expanding the boundaries of our experiences and comfort zones. It’s about academic excellence as well as integrity, leadership and service. It’s about challenging and supporting one another and growing together to our greatest potential. Your Honors experience consists of a unique combination of exciting courses, community engagement and discovery. 

Perhaps Honors for you will be a mind-blowing class discussion on the biological roots of true love or an engaging edge-of-your-seat presentation from an award-winning Organic Chemistry professor. Perhaps it will be cutting-edge research in a Pharmacy laboratory or at the SDSU Horse Unit, or sharing a meal with those who have served our country at the Veteran’s Administration hospital in Sioux Falls. Perhaps you’ll find Honors at a faculty/student town hall meeting, a fireside conversation or at our Honors Literary Circle. Maybe you’ll find Honors through our student organization, in our beautiful living-learning community or on the road regionally, nationally or internationally. Most of all, I hope that, in Honors, you will find yourself joining something far bigger, more important, more meaning-filled and fun than you imagine.

The Honors family is here to support you as you engage in your own Honors journey. Please visit me as well as our incredible Honors Program Assistant, Neethesh Chakkingal, our Coordinator of Programs, Events and Promotions, Nathan Bylander, and our wonderful Academic Advisor and Student Services Specialist, Hanna Holmquist, in 119 Honors Hall. We look forward to visiting with you in person and to exploring together how the Fishback Honors College can be a wonderful part of your SDSU experience.

Loyally, 

Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson
Dean