“Talent is the new currency of economic development,” according to Darin M. Buelow of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

It is what enables our organizations to expand their footprint, and to service more customers. In doing so, economic growth strategies must merge industry and talent centric policies together in creative and innovated ways, to effectively engage, encourage and equip talent for short and long-term industry gains.  

There were days as graduate students at SDSU when Ryan Burton and Valerie Bares were learning something in class and applying it that same day in the workplace.

They were two of more than a dozen participants in a unique fellowship program offered by Capital Services, a leading payment portfolio management and service company that originates, services, and manages card assets on behalf of client banks.

Burton and Bares, who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in the SDSU department of mathematics and statistics, were selected as Capital Services fellows and have gone on to build in-demand careers with what they learned.

Valerie Bares arrived at SDSU uncertain about what the future held.

There were days as graduate students at SDSU when Ryan Burton was learning something in class and applying it that same day in the workplace.

Think of the newly opened Madison Cyber Labs at Dakota State University as a big magnet.

“It’s going to attract people to come to work, new faculty who will be able to conduct research with federal agencies they can’t do on other campuses,” DSU president José-Marie Griffiths said. “And we think it will attract partnerships. We know it’s already attracting partnerships.”

The 38,000-square-foot building that opened in recent weeks already is fulfilling much of its promise.

As students move in, collaboration already is starting, those using the building said.

That was the idea when Griffiths proposed the concept to her campus and to the South Dakota Board of Regents just a few short years ago.

“We couldn’t have one lab per faculty member pursuing their individual research agendas. They had to be broader and involve others across campus and potentially involve external partners,” she said.

“The intent is not just research for the sake of research. It’s researching real problems, developing real solutions, but at the same time creating jobs for people who engage in that R&D and spin off companies that take that R&D and put it out into the real world.”

For Meghan Bowar, every day at Experity presents a new challenge to solve.