Experience, Entrepreneurs and Architecture

Ididn’t know I wanted to be a journalist until I was well into my college career and had switched majors three times. On the fourth change-up, I finally landed on writing as a career path, but it was an accident.

I had registered for a community journalism course at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, thinking it would be a few valuable credits, not a rerouting of my career path. An assignment in that class required me to convince a local publication of any kind to publish my work. Imagine a 20-year-old me nervously begging a Grand Forks Herald city editor to publish my first attempt at a news article and you have the beginning of my writing career. That assignment resulted in my internship at the Herald, which led to my first part-time general assignment reporting gig, my first full-time beat reporting job and a number of other positions I held as I made connections, met important people and worked my way to where I am today.

It was humbling and scary at the time, but that journalism professor saw the value in forcing college students out into the world. The jump from school to career is not usually simple and it’s certainly not obvious for many young people. In the higher education feature starting on page 36, we explore some of the mentor and leadership programs universities in the region offer their students to bridge that gap with real-world experience. Whether they’re being paired with a local professional in their anticipated career field or partnering with local organizations to do service work, students gain value and experience from those programs, and most schools are seeing increases in the number of students who want to participate in them.

This issue of Prairie Business also includes the Community Profile of neighboring cities Fargo and West Fargo in North Dakota and Moorhead, Minn. In an incredibly useful discussion with city and business leaders from those communities, entrepreneurism emerged as a central theme to the business environments there. That comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Fargo-Moorhead metro area, where new companies and organizations are sprouting up all the time. The three cities also boast a strong construction and development industry, and innovative measures to recruit and retain an efficient workforce. Read more about what the communities’ own leaders have to say about their cities on page 30.

The third and final feature in this issue spotlights a veterinary clinic in southwest North Dakota that incorporates two design elements for optimal energy, cost and insulation efficiency. The architect on the project says pairing geothermal heating and cooling with structural insulated panel construction creates the perfect scenario for savings. Read more about it on page 40.

Experience, entrepreneurs and architecture only touch on part of what we have in store for you in this edition of Prairie Business. Read on. PB

KORRIE WENZEL, Publisher

STACI LORD, Ad Director

LISA GIBSON, Editor

KAYLA PRASEK, Staff Writer

BETH BOHLMAN, Circulation Manager

KRIS WOLFF, Layout Design, Ad Design

Account Executive: NICHOLE ERTMAN

800. 477.6572 ext. 1162 nertman@prairiebusinessmagazine.com

Prairie Business magazine is published monthly by the Grand Forks Herald and Forum Communications Company with offices at 375 2nd Avenue North, Grand Forks, ND 58203.

Qualifying subscriptions are available free of charge. Back issue quantities are limited and subject to availability ($2/copy prepaid). The opinions of writers featured in Prairie Business are their own. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork are encouraged but will not be returned without a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

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Beth Bohlman: bbohlman@prairiebusinessmagazine.com

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