INNOVATION IN EXTENSION: South Dakota State University

The following describes an innovation.

Region: North Central

Main contact information for this innovation: Lindsey Gerard

Main contact job title / position: iGrow Technology Coordinator

Main contact number: 605-688-5195

Main contact email address:  lindsey.gerard@sdstate.edu

Innovation name: iGrow.org

Brief description of innovation as provided in online survey: iGrow.org is SDSU Extension's web based learning platform.

Notes from phone interview:

What we did with Lindsey was we found this during the reorganization, she just emerged as I think it was her youth and enthusiasm, but also her technical savvy with social media and technology. She helped us build a new learning platform that has been extremely helpful. We're already on version 2.0 and we're in places that I wouldn't [chuckles] have known we needed to be because of Lindsey. She's techy and smart and all those things, but she is also a good enough communicator that she can function and staunch the old organization that extension certainly can be sometimes. But again, we allowed her the freedom to operate. We rewarded her financially and we protected her against some of the negative criticism about change. I took that criticism. I didn't allow it to be focused on Lindsey. I think for an innovator to be successful, whoever is the administrator behind that has to have their back and be willing to support them.

Right. Our major program areas are all headlines and it's become enormously popular in a state of 630. We have 800,000 people in our state and we had almost a million page visits and almost 600,000 users last year. Just in terms of length on site abnormally long which is good. Our material is delivered and then linked to deeper material if somebody wants to go there. Whether it's gardening, horticulture gardening or ergonomic plant science things for crop production, we flow everything through this learning platform that we call iGrow.


The following describes an innovation.

Region: North Central

Main contact information for this innovation: David Olson

Main contact job title / position: Program Director - Community Development

Main contact number: 605-688-5614

Main contact email address:  david.olson@sdstate.edu

Innovation name: Wagner Racism Study Circles

Brief description of innovation as provided in online survey: SDSU Extension conducted the Horizons project with the community of Wagner.  Resulting from that experience was the intent to address racism in the community. Using a local committee, an intervention model was developed using racism study circles as the foundation.

Notes from phone interview: Well, another one is worked by our community development team that's led by a man named David Olson who for really ten years. I think this one brings up how investment over time is so important and having the measurement of success right because there's such a lag. Sometimes working in a border town to a Native American reservation where racial issues are very much not hidden there [chuckles], they were on the surface. And so ten years ago, we started working on building community and a shared community rather than a polarized white and Native American community in ten years. I don't know if you've been out here, but some of these reservations are really tough. And so a community where-- when the program began, they did a survey of graduating high school seniors and regardless of race - I don't remember exactly the right number - but basically every kid wanted to leave the town. The one that was just completed for this graduating class, 100% wanted to stay and find a way to stay. It took a long. It takes a huge investment by this individual which is really marvelous that he was willing to be the catalyst for a community dialogue about these really tough racial issues. But again, it took a lot of heart, it took a lot of brains and it took a lot of courage.


The following describes an innovation.

Region: North Central

Main contact information for this innovation: Chris Zdorovtsov

Main contact job title / position: Community Development Field Specialist

Main contact number: 605-782-3290

Main contact email address:  christina.zdorovtsov@sdstate.edu

Innovation name: New Roots for New Americans program

Brief description of innovation as provided in online survey: This program enables new citizens (immigrants, refugees) to obtain necessary skills in food production and entrepreneurism in order to increase food security

Notes from phone interview:

We don't have county agents anymore or educators, we have field specialists who is really doing some incredibly innovative programs to welcome and help get establish a new immigrant community in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She's using gardening and entrepreneurship, but actually what she's doing goes much, much deeper than that. She's integrating them into the community and validating their presence in the community. And so they're through stories and newspaper articles and television stories, and getting this Somalian community engaged in very white middle class in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It's courageous, it takes a big heart and yet it's technically sound. And so I think she's done a beautiful job of doing what I described a little bit earlier. Now I'm going to spell her name for you


The following describes an innovation.

Region: North Central

Main contact information for this innovation: Charles Martinell

Main contact job title / position: 4-H Youth Program Advisor

Main contact number: 605-367-7877

Main contact email address:  charles.martinell@sdstate.edu

Innovation name: Urban 4-H Outreach

Brief description of innovation as provided in online survey: Innovative outreach to under served youth audiences at the Pueblo de Dios Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls.


The following describes an innovation.

Region: North Central

Main contact information for this innovation: Suzanne Stluka

Main contact job title / position: Program Director - Food and Families

Main contact number: 605-688-4038

Main contact email address:  suzanne.stluka@sdstate.edu

Innovation name: Healthy Food, Healthy Families, Healthy Communities

Brief description of innovation as provided in online survey: Environmental change needs to be brought about through a process of community dialogue, community decision making and community action.  This fosters making the healthy choice an easy choice for individuals and families.