NSU Breaks Ground on New Business, Nursing and Innovation Center

ABERDEEN, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Thursday was a big day for Northern State University as a crowd of nearly 100 people attended an important groundbreaking ceremony.

What started out three years ago as a renovation project has now turned into a demolition and a complete reconstruction.

The groundbreaking happened Thursday, and the college administrators are excited.

Northern State University president Neal Schnoor talked about what the new Business and Health Innovation Center means, not only for the school but for the entire region.

“The new facility will house our business programs. Three of the highest needs in the workforce, our accounting, finance, and business management, also house our new nursing program and the nursing shortage, there are over 500 nursing shortages right now,” Schnoor explained. “This new facility also has our Innovation and Startup Center. So you take, workforce development, you take health development, you put innovation and entrepreneurship in the middle, and what we’re really doing is changing economic development for our entire region for generations to come.”

Newly appointed Business School Dean Kristi Bockorny is excited about the other entities that will be in the building when it’s completed.

“Within the new building, the Startup Center will also be housed there as well as nursing,” Kristi said. “And just the energy of those two entities coming in I think it’s going to be very exciting. The opportunity to bring in the business community to the building, they, you know, have meetings or guest speakers.”

The State Senate president pro tempore, Lee Schoenbeck, discussed the driving force behind the approval and financing of the project.

“Yeah, I mean, we have a huge workforce issue in South Dakota and the more you can have training and education to a more skilled workforce, the better off we are. But then when the Presentation closed the nursing aspect of this became even more important for our region,” Schoenbeck said.

After all is said and done, the nursing school, the Innovation Center, and the Business School will be housed in a building that looks great in the artist’s drawing.

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