MSU Graduate Weathers Bakken Storm Message from the President
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Connections Alumni Association and Development Foundation Fall 2015 MSU graduate weathers Bakken storm Message from the President a huge turnout of attendees Hanson, Willie McCollum, prestigious award recognizes from all over the country for LeeAnn Pekovitch, and Mike the outstanding male scholar- the Sig Tau 50th Reunion. Tighe. In late October, the athlete in the NSIC. Consid- We also celebrated reunions of Old Main Society banquet ering there are thousands of a couple women’s basketball was held recognizing donors student-athletes from 16 dif- teams from the mid-1990s. who have achieved new ferent campuses in a five-state It was enjoyable visiting with milestones in lifetime giving, region (and there is only one so many terrific alumni and thereby supporting the MSU recipient each year), this is a friends during Homecoming Development Foundation. remarkable accomplishment. events as they shared stories A few other recent causes This fall we have also about the impact MSU has for celebration include MSU been celebrating the 25th had on their lives and careers. alum Amy Neal being named anniversary of the North This fall, we also celebrated North Dakota’s 2016 Teacher Dakota Center for Persons the new press box and suites at of the Year. Amy is a kinder- with Disabilities. You can read Herb Parker Stadium during garten teacher in Minot, and more about NDCPD and its numerous MSU football and she also teaches part-time 25 years in this Connections soccer games. It is a wonderful for Minot State; we had a issue. A hearty word of s I write this new asset for MSU and the fun time surprising Amy and congratulations to Dr. Brent column, students community of Minot. congratulating her at Lewis Askvig and everyone at at Minot State We have had other causes & Clark Elementary School NDCPD for all of the terrific University are for celebration this fall earlier this fall (please see work they do for North already halfway through the fall semester and will be including the recent Golden page 15 for a photo and more Dakota. Minot State is hon- gearing up for final exams in Awards banquet recognizing information). ored and privileged to host just a few short weeks. The Linda Christianson, Deborah Another recent individual and work with NDCPD on calendar certainly seems to Schultz, Sandra Starr, and Dr. highlight is 2015 MSU gradu- a daily basis. tick by faster and faster with Tami-Jollie Trottier. You can ate and member of the Beaver Have a peaceful and relaxing each passing year! read more about each of these Golf Team, Kowan O’Keefe, Holiday Season ahead, and I Speaking of the fall, it has very deserving awardees in being named the 2014-15 look forward to seeing you in been a busy one with many this issue. The MSU Athletic Britton Scholar-Athlete Award 2016. Thanks for your reader- reasons to celebrate. MSU’s Hall of Fame also inducted winner for academic excellence ship of Connections and your 2015 Homecoming was a tre- four new members this fall in the Northern Sun Inter- ongoing support of MSU, and mendous celebration featuring with Genevieve (Binsfeld) collegiate Conference. This as always … Go Beavers! STEVEN W. SHIRLEY, PH.D. PRESIDENT 2 CONNECTIONS Volume 24 — number 1 INSIDE FEATURE ARTICLES CONNECTIONS STAFF Vice President for Advancement: Marv Semrau 4 MSU graduate weathers Bakken storm Managing Editor and Writer: Alysia Huck Writer and Editor: Frank McCahill 8 Local group brings the world to Minot Writers: Michael Linnell, Linda Benson ’83/ ’00 Photography Coordinator: 10 North Dakota Center for Persons with Disabilities Teresa Loftesnes ’07/ ’15 celebrates 25th anniversary Campus Photographer: Richard Heit ’07 Publication Design: Doreen Wald Alumni Happenings: Janna McKechnie ’14 Student impact goes both ways 12 Baby Beavers: Kate Marshall ’07 Class Notes: Bonnie Trueblood ATHLETICS In Memory: Renae Yale ’10 16 Hedberg comes home to get his ring PHOTOGRAPHERS: 18 Minot State opens Herb Parker Stadium Richard Heit ’07 Michael Linnell Teresa Loftesnes ’07/ ’15 20 DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION Janna McKechnie ’14 How to give it away and still keep it PHOTO CREDIT: Photos, as indicated on page 16 and 17, 21 ALUMNI HAPPENINGS courtesy of NDSU Athletics 24 MSU Alumni Association 2015 award recipients honored Connections is published three times a year by the Minot State University Alumni Association CLASS NOTES and Development Foundation. Send comments, 26 articles or photo submissions to Connections, MSU Alumni Office, 500 University Ave. West, 29 IN MEMORY Minot, ND 58707. Telephone 701-858-3399 or 1-800-777-0750. Fax 701-858-3179. Email: [email protected] 30 BABY BEAVERS Printed on Forest Stewardship Council certified stock. Third class postage paid at Fargo, ND 58101 COVER STORY MSU graduate weathers Bakken storm 4 The Bakken oil boom has put enormous strains on small-town resources in western North Dakota. Watford City school superintendent and MSU alumnus Steve Holen explains how his town weathered the deluge of workers and their families. Cover Photo: MSU alumnus Steven Holen stands inside the construction zone of the new Watford City High School, scheduled to open in January 2016. 3 MSU graduate weathers Bakken storm 4 hen MSU alumnus Steve Holen arrived in Watford City in 2005 as superintendent of schools, he found a rural community looking for W ways to survive and entice families to stay. Over the next five years, oil “Drilling rigs don’t always “It’s a matter of keeping a of 2016. The Watford City exploration and drilling picked correlate to students,” the sense of calm, making sound Wolves will join the Class A up, and school enrollments Des Lacs native said. “Those decisions, embracing the ranks the following year. began to increase. But local are the guys who are here moment,” the MSU Athletic The district had to hire officials like Holen didn’t for two weeks at a time and Hall of Famer said. 22 new teachers and two realize that an unparalleled oil go back home. They’re not “We looked at our op- administrators last year and boom was washing toward the here for the long term.” tions,” he said. “We filled up another 26 teachers this year region like a black tidal wave. This first wave of workers our buildings, then we went to to handle the influx. left families behind, worked portables, then we went with Watford City’s population Oil Boom III endless hours in the oil fields an elementary addition.” grew from 1,400 to 7,000 or The energy industry was and lived in a ragtag collection The district’s overall 8,000 residents in the past returning to North Dakota of pickups, campers, RVs and enrollment rose from 535 five years. The total is pro- with a shiny new pair of man-camps. to nearly 1,400 during jected to reach 15,000 in the technologies unavailable But soon the families the upsurge. To handle coming decade. during previous booms in arrived, and the school system the increase, school offi- the 1950s and 1980s. immediately felt the impact. cials reshaped the system’s Pattern Change Horizontal drilling coupled “Lower elementary (K-five) contours. The expanded As the oil patch evolved with hydraulic fracturing now enrollment more than tripled,” elementary school would from drilling to servicing rigs, enabled drillers to tap into the the superintendent said. house K-three students. housing needs also changed. oil-rich Bakken and Three Forks Altogether, grade-school The old high school would The itinerant army of male formations 10,000 feet beneath enrollment shot up from 200 become a middle school workers left the region, so the prairie. Energy companies to 750 students between 2010 to handle grades four to man-camps were phased out, hoped to capture an estimated and 2015. six. And a new high school and fewer apartment buildings 7 billion barrels of crude to Holen and his staff faced would house grades seven were planned. feed an oil-thirsty nation. critical choices to stay ahead to 12. “Now, we’re looking At first, the school district of the rising wave. He fell The new $51 million high forward to the single-family kept pace with the influx of back on character traits shaped school will accommodate 800 housing phase,” Holen said. oil workers escaping the Great during a stellar basketball students and feature state-of- “A lot of them are going to Recession that was brutalizing career at Minot State in the the-art facilities plus a theater choose to stay, if the quality of the rest of the country. mid-1990s. when it opens in January life is there.” STEVE HOLEN 5 Holen and his staff faced critical choices confident that energy’s second quiet community. Incessant act will be better than its first. traffic, overtaxed services and to stay ahead of the rising wave. He fell “McKenzie County is at escalating crime have become the core of the mature oil play, troublesome realities. Despite back on character traits shaped during a where the high productivity the head-swiveling changes, stellar basketball career at Minot State in wells are,” he said. “It’s not he remains upbeat. like things have shut down. “We’ve had a lot of the mid-1990s. Things are extremely busy. tremendous families move Long-term oil production will in because of the oil indus- continue regardless of the level try,” Holen said. “People in But not even the super- crude oil dropped 50 percent, of drilling or oil prices.” the region see Watford City heated Bakken can escape the creating a vague sense of Holen acknowledges that as a progressive community, gravitational pull of market unease in the oil patch.