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There’s something special about every college town — and Brookings is no exception. This episode explores the deep connection between South Dakota State University and the city of Brookings. Guest Laura Schoen Carbonneau, executive director of Visit Brookings, shares what makes the community unique, how ����ֱ�� contributes to its growth and spirit, and why so many alumni choose to make Brookings their home long after graduation.
 
 
Transcript:
[Heidi] 
The one thing I think I would tell people, which I feel like I probably reiterate this a lot to students, is, I think there are people who say, “There's nothing to do here.” You know, I'm sure you've heard this one before. You hear a town of 25,000 or, you know, and then some, depending with college students, you think, “Oh, that must be such a small town.
 
[Heidi] 
There's nothing to do there.” Which, in retrospect, in many communities in America, maybe it is pretty small, but I think between the university, between the town, there's always something going on. If you can't find something to do, you're not, well, not looking.
 
[Laura] 
Absolutely.
 
[Heidi] 
Hello, Jackrabbits Nation! My name is Heidi Bushong, and this is “The Yellow & Blue Podcast.” Today's episode is all about connection, specifically the bond between South Dakota State University and the city it calls home: Brookings. Joining us as someone who knows Brookings inside and out: Laura Schoen Carbonneau, executive director of Visit Brookings. She works every day to showcase what makes this community so special and welcomes visitors from near and far.
 
[Heidi] 
We'll be talking about what makes Brookings unique, how SDSU contributes to the community, and why so many alumni choose to plant roots here after graduation. Thank you so much for being here today, Laura.
 
[Laura] 
I'm excited. Thank you for inviting me.
 
[Heidi] 
I'm really excited to get into this topic. I live and work in Brookings. I love this place so much.
 
[Heidi] 
So, thank you so much for being here today.
 
[Laura] 
You bet. There's just something about Brookings that if you know, you know, right?
 
[Heidi] 
Yeah, exactly. And for those who don't know, we're working on telling them today.
 
[Laura] 
It's a great partnership, great opportunity.
 
[Heidi] 
Exactly. So, for someone who has never visited Brookings before, never been here, never seen it, maybe know a little bit something about it.
 
[Heidi] 
How would you describe it to them?
 
[Laura] 
Well, first, from the statistical standpoint of you, we are the fourth largest community in the state. We are located right along I-29, 45 minutes-ish from Sioux Falls, another 30 minutes from Watertown. So easy access on I-29. That's just the basic stuff. The thing that I think really captures people's imagination is that Brookings has a vibe to it and it's one of those things that is hard to describe, but you know it when you feel it.
 
[Laura] 
And it's just that really special place. It's that special feeling that you get. I think a lot of it is due to the university, of course, being a college town is definitely prevalent, but there's also so much going on in the community itself. I always explain it as a way that in some communities in South Dakota, you have a university that's attached to a town.
 
[Heidi]
Yes.
 
[Laura] 
And in other places you have an institution that is the main part. And then you have a little town attached to it. Brookings is a really, really good example of almost equally university, town and there's a great synergy there. Is that still a word people use? Synergy.
 
[Heidi]
Yes.
 
[Laura] 
I don't know synergy. But if not, you know, we're gonna bring it back.
 
[Laura] 
But there is such a great cohesiveness and an ability to work together, and that's intentional. That doesn't just happen. That is part of strategic plans on both of the university side and the community side. And organizations like ours are very intent in figuring out how do we work together with our partners, because we're so ingrained in what we do.
 
[Laura] 
And I think that's really what creates such a that that, again, that vibe that Brookings has.
 
[Heidi] 
When we're talking to students and people on campus and out in the community, we kind of describe it as like big university, small town feel. But, you know, but Brookings is big enough where it does have some things, but it's not small enough where you're like, “I have absolutely nothing to do.”
 
[Laura] 
Right? Yeah, it really is just the right size. People, when they move here, it's like any community. It takes a little while to connect. But once you find your groove and you kind of get those familiar places down, it really is easy to just become part of the fabric of the community, which is nice.
 
[Laura] 
And if you're coming here from a student, there are so many opportunities to get involved, obviously on campus, but within the community as well. And that's been another focus that our economic development agencies have really focused on. How do you bring the students into the community in a variety of different ways?
 
[Heidi] 
Yeah. For sure. What do you think that Brookings offers that kind of sets itself apart from other communities?
 
[Heidi] 
I know you pointed out there are some places where a university is attached to a town, and you said that the work Visit Brookings and the other organizations here in town do very deliberate work to make sure it doesn't feel that way. What do you think that Brookings offers that sets itself apart? And how does that relationship work?
 
[Laura] 
I think there's a variety of different ways, from I'm going to start from the City of Brookings perspective. They have a very active role in helping fund the student promotion fund, which helps fund some of those activities on campus. But as such and just as a partnership, they invite the Students’ Association president to come to city council meetings, and they want to know what's going on on campus and looking for ways to connect in that way.
 
[Laura] 
The Chamber of Commerce, which is a great partner agency of us, they have a specific outreach that they're working with university students, too. It's called the Work Ready Boot Camp. And it really is a way to engage students as college students, pulling them into the community, showing them the different opportunities that are available to them.
 
[Laura] 
Obviously, from our standpoint, we want to keep as many SDSU grads in the community working and supporting the university and the university community as possible. We understand sometimes that it's a good thing for us, but we understand that people do want to get out and do the big things in the world that they can do.
 
[Laura] 
But the chamber's done a really good job of doing surveys over the years to ask students, you know, what do you see yourself continuing to stay in Brookings after graduation? And it's been interesting to see that number change over years. I think it was in single digits at the beginning of the time they did surveys, and I believe in 2024 it was like 14% of the students.
 
[Laura] 
So that tells me that there has been that community engagement piece where students are seeing the opportunities in Brookings. So that's an example from the chamber perspective. In our office, we work with the university students on the specifically the PR writing class, and we produce our visitor guide every year. And it's become a really great community project where the students are actually writing copy for our visitor guide, which is produced every year.
 
[Laura] 
And we're just in the process of starting our 2026 guide and working with the students again. We're going to see their first drafts of stories. But not only does that give them buy-in into the community and help them learn a little bit more about what it is that they're writing about, because, you know, you do have to go and go to these places and learn about them so you can write about them.
 
[Laura] 
But it also shows that we support the students. We want this to be a win-win situation for them. Of course, we get the content for our visitor guide, but they get the experience in an actual publication that they can use when they go out to apply for jobs beyond college. We're always looking for those different ways that we can work together on projects.
 
[Laura] 
And I think there's probably going to be more that evolves. So, it’s just I think having that willingness to look for ideas and explore different opportunities is definitely something that works into the whole overall concept of campus and community.
 
[Heidi] 
When you talk about campus and community. Obviously, there's a strong sense of campus here being a college town, but there's just as many people and obviously more people here than there are college students.
 
[Heidi] 
What does that kind of dynamic look like? Like, do you feel like there's a sense of community here? Like a sense of, like pride for Brookings?
 
[Laura] 
Oh, yeah. No doubt. I think it goes both ways. I think that, my husband is an SDSU grad and every time, before we kind of moved over on the side of the state, we had an opportunity to go to Brookings for hockey or for, you know, come to football games or whatever it was.
 
[Laura] 
It's just that, of course it's SDSU, but it's Brookings. So, there is that great memory engagement piece from the alumni. And again, that starts as students because you start to put down those roots, and you have that affinity. But the other side of that is, you know, you do have the community that a lot of the people that live here are SDSU grads and you know, when we when we have college games, whether it's basketball, volleyball, whatever it is, the whole town gets excited about it.
 
[Laura] 
So, there is there is that. And again, that plays back into that vibe that I was talking about earlier.
 
[Heidi] 
As a fellow alumni who, I'm not from this college town, but I'm from another college town, and I decided to stay in this one. It is so fun to see how much people love SDSU, support the Jackrabbits.
 
[Heidi] 
And like you said, we, you know, whether it's like Hobo Week, you know, seeing the entire community come together, you know, students are painting on businesses or building floats and just seeing kind of all of that dynamic come together. It just feels so good to be in a place where people appreciate each other and, like, want to work together and make this a better place for everybody.
 
[Laura] 
Yeah, I would definitely agree. You see a lot of that.
 
[Heidi] 
Yeah. So, in terms of, like, the visitor side, you're always looking for different events, different attractions to tell people about to bring them to Brookings. In terms of the community, what would you say SDSU brings to that? You know, we have a lot of different athletic events, obviously.
 
[Heidi] 
The Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center always has something going on. What are some different things that you see SDSU brings to the table that you might not necessarily see in other communities?
 
[Laura] 
You know, one of the things that that we do when we're first introducing people who are fairly new to the community, we talk about our Great Eight passport, and that's eight places around the community that you have to see.
 
[Laura] 
A lot of times we give them to new residents just so they can start to become familiar. People who are maybe here for a job interview, whether it's on campus as a faculty or, you know, someone coming to work for one of the other, wonderful employees we have in the community. But it's eight places in the community.
 
[Laura] 
When you start looking through that list, you see. OK, well, it's McCrory Gardens. It's the South Dakota Art Museum. It's the South Dakota Agricultureal Heritage Museum. It's the SDSU Dairy Bar. Four of our eight are university related, and that's huge. So, you don't necessarily in some of the communities, especially our size, you might not have eight attractions at all, much less eight that are part of the university system.
 
[Laura] 
So that in itself is very unique. So yeah, that's a major part of what we, what we tell people about.
 
[Heidi] 
I feel like SDSU, not only do they, you know, have places where people can visit, you know, between the art museum, Dairy Bar, different things that you have said, as SDSU also works really hard to try and attract different businesses or contribute to the workforce of Brookings, like Bel Brands recently. In recent history, that was probably one of the more notable ones.
 
[Heidi] 
How have you seen SDSU try to attract talent or industries or certain things to the town?
 
[Laura] 
You know, that's a really good question. And there are a lot of really good answers. Get a pull back in the history and look at an example like Daktronics, which is a shining example of a great collaboration between the university and private business, because it was started by a university student way back in the day and has just grown into a worldwide company beyond that.
 
[Laura] 
So obviously, in terms of having a worldwide presence in not just Daktronics, but in a number of our industries, it just goes to show that you really can do anything with your education from Brookings, whether it's here in town or other places in the world. But beyond that, because we do have such a strong manufacturing base in the community, we have so many opportunities for university students, whether it's part time jobs or internships.
 
[Laura] 
And again, that helps build up the entire economic, strength of our community. We also have the other side of that. We have hospitality jobs. We have opportunities to work in retail stores downtown. Just about any kind of job you're looking for, whether it's for a couple hours here or, you know, more structured, maybe you only work, you know, have one class on Tuesdays and you want more of that standard income that is always helpful for college students.
 
[Laura] 
There's so many opportunities and businesses are hiring all the time. So, it really helps, fill a lot, fill a dual purpose.
 
[Heidi] 
And a lot of those jobs, those industries, they come back into SDSU, like we have the hospitality management. And then, you know, you look at the different industries between engineering, manufacturing, biotechnology, agriculture. All of those are areas of study at the university.
 
[Heidi] 
And they chose to be in Brookings. And it's no secret as to why they decided to be here. It's because both relationships help both parties.
 
[Laura] 
Yeah, absolutely. And I am not as knowledgeable about the Research Park at SDSU as I probably should be. But that's why you have someone who leads that facility. But they're doing amazing things.
 
[Laura] 
Partnerships with NASA. And, you know, all the biotechnology type of industry, that's happening right now in a very, very rapid pace. So, there are amazing opportunities that are starting in Brookings. And then, sometimes they outgrow the facility because they have just become too big. And that's another testament of a win in terms of saying, “Hey, let's we want everyone to be successful.
 
[Laura] 
Let's pull these resources together.” And if we can keep them in Brookings, that's wonderful. But if they can go out into the world, we know at least they got their start in Brookings, and they're still going to have ties back to the community.
 
[Heidi] 
Why do you think they decide to come study here and then continue to stay here?
 
[Laura] 
I think it is because of the welcoming atmosphere. I think it's because in a lot of cases, you can find the jobs that you're looking for. It's always tricky because when you're first, you're that that young college graduate, you want to go out and make your mark on the world. So, we might not keep all of them right after graduation.
 
[Laura] 
But when you start thinking of, OK, I'm going to start a family, you look at the community because it is a great place to raise kids by all of the outdoor amenities that we have to the Children's Museum to just the friendliness that we have in the university system as well as in the community and just did the number of things that you can do that are available.
 
[Laura] 
I think it really becomes attractive to those young adults, young families especially. And it's, you know, again, I'm going to say affordable. But in the whole scheme of things, who knows what affordable is anymore, because it's changed from when I was up at age. But, when you take a look at other parts of the country, you and other parts of the state, it is a very affordable place to live.
 
[Laura] 
And again, it's easy to get around. It's a safe community. There's not a lot of crime. All those things that you kind of look for and you think, OK, yeah, I can really see myself living in Brookings and staying here and raising my family here and continuing on and just never really wanting to leave.
 
[Heidi] 
I feel like you really hit the nail on the head.
 
[Heidi] 
You took the words out of my mouth, because I was a student here, graduated 2016 and I didn't intend on staying in Brookings, but my now husband had a job. I soon got a job in Brookings after that, and we were just like, why would we want to go anywhere else? This has, like, all of the things that we're looking for.
 
[Heidi] 
It's safe. It's clean. It's a good community, a great place to raise kids. There's always something going on, and it's also pretty close if you're looking to go to, like, a bigger city. Sioux Falls is not that far. You can get to the Twin Cities in three and a half to four hours. You know, it just really seems and felt right.
 
[Heidi] 
And I think a lot of people feel that way, too, especially younger generations and families. How do you think the city has kind of adapted to those over the years? Like obviously the Children's Museum and having a big school system helps, but what are some different ways that you've seen the city and different entities work together to make it a good place for families?
 
[Laura] 
Brookings, like just about every other community, not only in the state but around our midstates region, even elsewhere in the country, are all struggling with the same things. It's childcare and affordable housing. And, you know, anyone who can figure out those two, solutions to those two problems should probably run for president or something. But I think that understanding the resources and the opportunities available, I think Brookings has done a really good job of understanding that there is a need to find some solutions in those cases, for example.
 
[Laura] 
And again, this is a, that Brookings Economic Development Corporation has really led the efforts on the Child Care Collaborative, which is working with the Boys and Girls Club on providing more opportunities for child care resources. Now, I don't have all the details of how that all works, but our friends at BEDC would have all kinds of information that can explain how the process works.
 
[Laura] 
But that's one opportunity to talk about a success story that happened when you saw the need, especially for those younger families, because child care is pretty important. You can't go to a job if you can't leave your kids with some place that you know is safe and you trust. For affordable housing, you are seeing apartments pop up everywhere around town right now.
 
[Laura] 
So, there are projects going on. And there's also things like development that are going on. If you take a look at the marketplace that's just on the other side of the interstate, that has been a wonderful opportunity. Just waiting for something to happen. And now we're getting a Target, which you wouldn't think would be that big of a deal.
 
[Heidi]
It's huge.
 
[Laura] 
But it is huge. And again, that's nothing against Walmart or the existing businesses. But to have a Target, all of a sudden it's like, OK, there's one more opportunity to provide options for clothing, for school supplies, for, you know, buying Christmas presents, home goods, those kind of things that help keep people spending locally. And that's important because obviously it supports those businesses.
 
[Laura] 
But it kind of gets back into those sales tax dollars because of sales tax dollars. It would run communities and provide all those quality-of-life things that we all take for granted. Or at least we probably don't take for granted. But sometimes we do. I mean, it's the police services, it's the nice parks, it's the snow removal services and it's the ability then to take those dollars and reinvest them into the community.
 
[Laura] 
In other ways. So, the Targets, the Aldis, the other things that are being talked about kind of behind the scenes, it's so exciting. And what a wonderful opportunity for Brookings to be able to provide those things, which again, goes back into the what can Brookings as a community offer to those young families and really families of all ages, that it's that opportunity for growth?
 
[Laura] 
So, I think, and again, this is probably edging outside of my area of expertise from the visitor side, but from more of the growth, community development and economic development, I think it's about 25,000 is the population mark that you need to get to before you really start seeing some interesting development and interest. And we are right there. So, I think that there's nothing but a bright future ahead for Brookings and the residents that live here and the students who want to come to school here.
 
[Heidi] 
With growth comes change. And I understand that there are some changes happening with the economic development agencies. Can you tell me about that?
 
[Laura] 
Absolutely. Right now, we really have four economic development partner agencies. We have our office, which is Visit Brookings. We have the Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce, we have Downtown Brookings, and we have the Brookings Economic Development Corporation.
 
[Laura] 
We all work together in different capacities right now, but we are in the process of actually merging into one super organization. So, you have one stop shopping for all of your economic development needs. So, we're going through the process. We've been working on this for about a year now. And now we will officially launch as the new organization yet to be named on Jan. 1.
 
[Laura] 
And we're excited about it. It's certainly been a challenge as you kind of work through how do you bring everybody together. But I think it's going to be a good growth opportunity for our community.
 
[Heidi] 
What are some things that you hear people say about our community? What do they notice?
 
[Laura] 
You know? Well, a lot of the times we hear and visit with them as they're just getting into town.
 
[Laura] 
But, I think that they're the things that they're most interested in is probably a better thing that I can address that they want to know where the places are to eat and you start thinking of, OK, well, what are the places that we have to eat? And we have so many and they're not just the chain restaurants.
 
[Laura] 
But I will tell you, chain restaurants are important for visitors because they like that security of knowing that, well, if I go to, I use, you know, Buffalo Wild Wings since we have one. If you go to Buffalo Wild Wings, you know, those Buffalo Wild Wings in Brookings is going to be very much like the Buffalo Wild Wings in Sioux Falls or Omaha or anywhere else.
 
[Laura] 
And you have that familiarity, which is important. But you also have the Nick’s and the Craft and the Pheasant and all of those, one of a kind that really, really impress people. And it's just a great opportunity to share some of our local flavors and culture with them as well. I think sometimes they're always, always impressed by the Children's Museum.
 
[Laura] 
Sometimes we have to remind them that, you know, maybe you don't have a child with you, but there's a restaurant on site and everybody likes to play. You're never too old to play and kind of look through, so that's always a good thing. We get a lot of people that are interested in the bike paths and Dakota Nature Park and the outdoor recreational opportunities.
 
[Laura] 
So, it really is a mix of the things that we hear in our in our office from the visitors who get to come here.
 
[Heidi] 
With that being said, it sounds like, your office is really good at making recommendations to people as to what to do, but what's one thing that you wish people knew more about Brookings?
 
[Laura] 
Number one, we're not Brookings, Oregon.
 
[Laura] 
You would be amazed at how many times we've picked up the phone and someone said, yeah, we're going to be driving along the coast and we're not quite sure exactly where to stop. And we’re like, “OK, this is Brookings, South Dakota.” For those of you who don't know and who are listening, and there is a Brookings, Oregon.
 
[Heidi] 
Your website and SEO must be working really well in Google search.
 
[Laura] 
I think maybe people, because Brookings has grown so much, I think maybe they don't understand how many job opportunities we do have here. That’s probably the thing that I would mention that we have so many different industries and opportunities, whether it's the university or, again, some of our manufacturing opportunities or even on the banking side, there's always opportunities and jobs available for people.
 
[Heidi] 
The one thing I think I would tell people, which I feel like I probably reiterate this a lot to students, is, I think there are people who say there's nothing to do here. You know, I'm sure you've heard this one before. You hear a town of 25,000 or, you know and then some, depending with college students, you think, oh, that must be such a small town.
 
[Heidi] 
There's nothing to do there. Which in retrospect, in many communities in America, maybe it is pretty small, but I think between the university, between the town, there's always something going on. If you can't find something to do, you're not you're not looking.
 
[Laura] 
Absolutely. There is something going on every single night, which actually this is a good opportunity for maybe me to point out some of the resources that we have available for those people that are looking for that information.
 
[Laura] 
But, our website is VisitBrookingsSD.com. Got to get that “SD” so there's a double “s” in there. Otherwise you may end up at Brookings, Oregon. But VisitBrookings.com. We have the list of all of the places to eat, the places to stay. But down at the bottom of our page, we have probably the most comprehensive community calendar that the city has right now.
 
[Laura] 
And we've really tried to build that out. It includes university events, high school events, community events to the extent that people send in their information. But it's a really good resource for people trying to find out what there is to do. And we also send that out to people who request that information on a monthly basis, in kind of a printed calendar format.
 
[Laura] 
But, between us and the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development, we all have pretty robust calendars and pieces of information that if you are looking for something, we can get you the answer. We may not know. And if we don't know, we're going to ask the other people in our organization. But yeah, it's, there are so many things going on all of the time that, it's just depends on the day.
 
[Laura] 
What do you want to do today?
 
[Heidi] 
The world is your oyster. Let's go find out.
 
[Laura]
Pretty much.
 
[Heidi] 
Perfect. Thank you so much for being here.
 
[Laura]
Oh, thanks for having me.
 
[Heidi] 
This is “The Yellow & Blue Podcast.” Thanks for listening.