"Attending SDSU has allowed me to learn who I am as a person and what my talents and skills are." - Wendy Weber
Story Contact
Tim Nichols, Assistant Director of Academic Programs, timothy.nichols@sdstate.edu
Wendy Weber, senior, Sioux Falls
Eric Ollila, AgBio Communications
Weber in the SDSU Dairy Plant and Sales Bar cheese locker.
Top Culture
There are a lot of things that can be said about cheese. It can be eaten cold, hot, or somewhere in-between. You may ask for “extra” or for none at all. It can be fresh, processed, aged, sharp, soft, or hard. The moon is definitely not made of it. There is only one university in South Dakota that produces it, sells it, and teaches all there is to know about it. And there just might be a lot of it in senior Wendy Weber’s future.
Weber, Sioux Falls, is majoring in dairy manufacturing and specializing in microbiology, and that particular combination lends itself to the study of dairy products such as cheese. Cheese, after all, is a product of bacteria, and the fine-tuned manipulation of bacterium can lead to cheeses ranging from a delicate cheddar to a rank Limburger.
Weber, who said she became interested in studying dairy as a high school senior, says she has some very specific post-graduate goals in dairy, and becoming fully versed in cheesemaking is one of them.
“I’d like to learn more about both the processing of cheese and the different aspects of a quality cheese plant,” Weber said. “And maybe one day down the road I’ll have my own small-town cheese operation, just selling to local people.”
The one-to-one aspect of Weber’s long-range goal, that “small-town cheese operation,” is somewhat mirrored by the way she came to SDSU.
In speaking with Weber about her time at SDSU, there is a sense that she was drawn to the ABS College and the dairy science program because of their friendly, familiar, intimate natures.
Weber was on an FFA trip when her connection with SDSU’s dairy program began. Originally intent on going to college to study nursing, Weber, then a senior at Brandon Valley High School, was traveling with her FFA adviser to Rapid City for an FFA function. During the trip, she mentioned she was interested in studying agriculture in college.
The adviser, who had had two children graduate from SDSU with degrees in dairy, spoke with her about the program. Weber, who had visited SDSU for FFA contests, was intrigued.
Soon after, SDSU Dairy Science Department head Vikram Mistry visited Weber’s high school. On his visit, Mistry spoke of the University, of the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, of the dairy science program, of the students. Weber was interested, so she planned a visit to the SDSU campus.
During her campus visit, Weber met with dairy science faculty and staff, as well as with Dairy Club officers. Those Weber met with were enthusiastic, positive, and supportive. And Weber was in.
“Everything just kind of fit together,” Weber said. “It worked out nicely.”
Four years later, things are still fitting together and working nicely.
Weber has become an integral part of the dairy science program, of the ABS College, and of SDSU. She has earned a Department of Dairy Science scholarship each year. She is a four-year member of the Dairy Club (and one of its three activities directors). She has helped manage the ABS College’s Dairy Plant. She is an ABS College student ambassador. (For more on the Ambassador program, see “Student to Student.”) Her academic adviser is Mistry. And she has twice interned with the dairy-products company Kemps.
Weber said the Kemps internships were unique. She said that while most of the company’s interns spend their internships at the Kemps plant in Rochester, Minn., where fluid dairy products and ice cream are made, her own internships were spent at the company’s cultured cheese operation in Farmington, Minn., which fit her interests perfectly.
The Kemps internships are examples of the opportunities available to students in the ABS College. Weber said such opportunities have given her not only the tools for discovery but also the awareness and the ability to use them.
“Attending SDSU has allowed me to learn who I am as a person and what my talents and skills are,” she said. “Being involved in all these activities, and my curriculum within the Dairy Science Department, has really brought out who I am and matured me.”
Howard Bonneman, professor of dairy science, said Weber is a student of special note. “She’s one of those students you like to have in your class,” he said. “She brings lots of enthusiasm and a willingness to engage.”
Weber said dairy science at SDSU is something to be excited about. She said the program is among the best.
“SDSU is tops in the nation for dairy science programs,” she said. “There are only two schools that have the program we have, as far as having a processing plant and dairy unit on campus. That’s one thing that really sets the Dairy Science Department apart from the rest. It is one of the top programs in the nation.”
RELATED LINKS
SDSU Dairy Plant and Sales Bar