Alumni Spotlight – Sharon Chontos (ChemE 87)
The experiences that students get while attending South Dakota Mines often transcend well beyond the classroom, past the quad, across the stage at graduation, and into their careers and daily adult lives. Those experiences connect them in a unique way and instills a sense of pride in being alumni of South Dakota Mines. That feeling of community is what makes Sharon Chontos (ChemE 87) so excited to step back into a leadership role with the foundation as the incoming Honorary Alumni President.
“We have amazing alumni and I’m hoping to connect them back to the school,” she said. “Every job I’ve ever received has been through the alums. That alumni network is real and it’s working.”
Sharon was a first-generation student who attended South Dakota Mines after growing up on a farm in Dell Rapids, SD. At the time, she didn’t know any engineers and didn’t know what engineers did, but she knew that she liked chemistry and math, so she decided to go for a chemical engineering degree.
When reminiscing about her time at Mines, she said the biggest thing that made an impact on her was how small the class sizes were, making it possible to become friends with a lot of her classmates and even professors. While in school, she served as the student association vice president and was heavily involved in student senate and things that were happening on campus.
Sharon also worked hard to establish the first sorority on campus, Alpha Omega Epsilon. That sorority was started in conjunction with Marquette University in Milwaukee, who started the Alpha chapter. The Mines sorority became the Beta chapter on Jan. 1, 1985. That sorority has grown to now be known as the Beta Delta Mu sorority. Sharon said those connections have been some of the most valuable she’s had over the years and she remains heavily involved and connected to her Greek sisters.
“The Greek, they’re the most engaged on campus, they’re the most engaged alumni,” she said. “It’s those bonds and ties that keep you tied to campus and to each other.”
After graduating from Mines, Sharon went on to have a successful 40 year career, working for various oil and gas companies and a renewable energy company, before starting her own consulting business, Sage Project Consultants, in 2009. During the transition to merge the Mines foundation and the alumni association, Sharon also stepped in as the interim CEO for the Center for Alumni Relations and Advancement (CARA) and has sat on the board for the foundation for many years.
Sharon is looking forward to stepping into her new role as the Honorary Alumni President for CARA and using many of those skills she learned while at Mines and applying them to her new role, noting one of those biggest lessons she learned was critical thinking.
“Don’t take things at face value,” she said. “You have to dig in and solve the problem and the causes.”
Sharon says she is thankful for each and every alumni who is connected to the school and helps by giving of their time, talent, and treasures and hopes to continue that great tradition and work to continue to connect even more alumni back to their alma mater.