Hello Hardrockers!
Campus is full again.
We’re three weeks in. First-years are getting around more easily. They’ve found the labs, found their classes, found their tribe. The homework is real. Sophomores are back and settled. Juniors are in the thick of it. Seniors are already taking calls from recruiters, some of them yours.
They walked into a Mines with real wind at its back.
We just closed the strongest fundraising year in our history – $120 million for New Heights, $28M+ in the last fiscal year alone. Mines is proposed to receive $25 million in federal funding to train the next generation of mining engineers, geologists, and metallurgists. The country needs those graduates badly. We’ve been producing them since 1885.
Here’s the part that matters.
Momentum doesn’t come from institutions. It comes from people who keep showing up for one. You give. You hire our grads. You mentor them. You show up at gatherings. You wear the gear in an airport and tell a stranger where to send their kid.
Chief evangelist isn’t a title we can hand out. You already took the job.
Which brings me to Rocker Days, happening September 24-27. Windows painted downtown. The M whitewashed. The Frosh Run at halftime. Same hill. Same paint.
Come see it.
This momentum is easier to feel on campus than to read about in an email. Walk the quad. Find your building. Stand where you stood.
Bring someone. Bring the kid who hasn’t picked a school yet. We’ll be glad you came.
And if you can’t get back to campus this year, join Hardrocker Connections. It’s the best place to reconnect with alumni, find opportunities to mentor and volunteer, attend events wherever you are, and find new ways to give back.
However you choose to stay connected, know this: Mines is what it is because Hardrockers keep showing up for each other. You’re part of that. You always will be.
So come back when you can. Stay connected when you can’t. Bring someone with you. Keep telling the story.
The next chapter of Mines is being written by Hardrockers like you.
Go Hardrockers!
Marc Vaillancourt
Chief Executive Officer
South Dakota Mines Center for Alumni Relations & Advancement (CARA)