Investing in Tomorrow’s Global Researchers and Leaders

Bees and butterflies of all kinds make frequent trips to the milkweed, prairie coneflower, prairie smoke, and black-eyed Susans blooming in Rebecca Kurtz and Steve Schwanke’s yard.  

Providing native habitat for pollinator insects in their urban Eagan, Minnesota, neighborhood is one way the couple works to support these pivotal creatures.  

“We are passionate about native plants because bees are so reliant on them,” Steve explained. “The native plant community is totally under stress – and that is probably a polite way of putting it. A number of native species are becoming extinct. If those plants go away, we will lose the bees, and, if we lose bees, there goes honey and pollination and a whole bunch of life cycle, plant cycle, animal cycle functions that are crucial.” 

Steve and Rebecca’s passion for bees and other pollinator insects is rooted in family. Rebecca’s mom, LaDonna, is an avid flower gardener and Steve’s grandpa, Alfred Morris, was a beekeeper. Together, Steve and Rebecca continue these legacies by caring for hives of their own. 

Compelled to do more, the couple funded an undergraduate research award for students involved in SDSU’s native plant initiative. Jackrabbits who receive the research award are paired with a faculty mentor and receive funds to complete native plant research. 

At the same time, Rebecca and Steve worked with the SDSU Alumni & Foundation to create an estate gift directed toward the global agricultural leadership program. Approved by the South Dakota Board of Regents in summer 2025, the new master’s degree program is a condensed, 14-month professional curriculum. 

“We see SDSU as providing answers to global challenges,” Steve said. “SDSU has the resources. SDSU has the people with the technical, scientific, and leadership skills to provide real answers.” 

Rebecca agreed, adding, “Students doing research and studying environmentalism today at SDSU are the next generation of leaders. Who knows what they will discover and how they will lead us to solutions that have not even been thought of yet.” 

Impact in Action 

Rebecca and Steve get to meet with students who receive the Native Plant Initiative Research Award they fund. The couple say these meetings are always inspirational. “It is so exciting to see what they are doing and to hear their passion as they talk about what they are discovering through research,” Rebecca said.  

The native plant initiative and global agricultural leadership program are not the only areas Rebecca and Steve support. The couple have also given to the South Dakota Art Museum and McCrory Gardens. 

In fact, Rebecca, a 1994 journalism graduate, has been giving back to SDSU since she graduated. “Let me be clear, in the early years of my career, it might have only been, like, $50 a year – but my parents instilled in me that you always give back,” said Rebecca, who works as an economic development consultant for Ehlers and Associates.  

Along with giving back, Rebecca’s parents, LaDonna and David, also instilled a love for SDSU in their children. David is an engineering graduate, and LaDonna is a home economics graduate who built her career on campus, retiring as the Assistant Dean for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.  

“I literally grew up at SDSU. I learned to ride my bike on campus,” Rebecca said. “Forever, my whole life, I have always been connected to SDSU.”  

To this day, because her parents live in Brookings, nearly every trip home includes a visit to campus for a football or basketball game or a performance at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center.  

“When we were dating, it became very, very clear to me that when we got married, I was going to have to become a Jackrabbit,” said Steve, a commercial and residential real estate developer.  

Rebecca said it was quite obvious that Steve hopped right in to being a Jackrabbit.  

“Steve saw these mugs at the SDSU bookstore that say, ‘I married into this.’ He bought two sets: one for our home and one to leave at my mom and dad’s house,” Rebecca said. 

Steve added that, in addition to getting to know students, as a donor, he has appreciated the open communication he and Rebecca have been able to have with SDSU administration and faculty leading the program areas they invest in. “Everyone is always so accessible. We get updates from Dr. Lora Perkins with the native plant initiative. When we were talking about our estate gift and we wanted to learn more about the global agricultural leadership program, Dean Joe Cassady was brought in to talk about the program.” 

In 2021, Rebecca joined the SDSU Alumni & Foundation Board of Trustees. She said each meeting is energizing because she gets to learn about the amazing achievements of SDSU students.  

“I leave those meetings so excited. I recently learned SDSU had a group of students who placed high in a NASA competition against much larger universities. This makes me so proud,” Rebecca said. “When I think about the research work SDSU is doing in the area of land conservation – you know, we are never going to get more land – it makes me hopeful for the future.”

Written by Lura Roti