Nontraditional Morans Multiply Jackrabbit Pride

Jackrabbit pride is strong for the Morans.  

The family members, who hailed from Florida before their eventual migration to Brookings and beyond, have created a family tradition of going back to school as nontraditional students at South Dakota State University.  

From Peru to Florida to South Dakota  

Their love of the Yellow and Blue started with Freddy Moran Sr., now 59, who moved to Florida from Lima, Peru, at 14 to live with his aunt and attend school in the United States.  After a stint in the U.S. Army, Freddy pursued a career in real estate in Miami, Florida, before the housing crisis hit in the mid-2000s.  

In his 40s, he went back to school to earn his associate degree and then finished his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2015. He was talking about pursuing grad school with a friend in Florida who recommended SDSU after completing an internship here.  

“He’s the one who told me about the great program SDSU has for engineering, and I was looking to go to graduate school at the time. … He told me it was a nice town and an amazing program. ‘You got to check it out.’ I was sold,” Freddy said.  

Freddy went on to earn his master’s degree, with an emphasis on structural engineering, from SDSU in 2017 at 51. He now lives in Mitchell with his wife, Debra, and works as a civil engineer for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, designing bridges, drainage and dams.  

In 2015, Freddy Sr. convinced his son and daughter-in-law, Freddy Jr. '20 (also an Army veteran using his G.I. Bill) and Danielle M.S. '20, to move to South Dakota to attend SDSU. Freddy Jr. earned his bachelor’s degree in history, and Danielle earned her master’s in counseling. The couple and their children have since moved on to Pennsylvania, where Freddy Jr. earned his master’s, and they are working as a high school teacher and a school counselor.  

Took some convincing  

After much of her immediate family had relocated to South Dakota, Samantha Moran '25 was persuaded by brother Freddy Jr. to join the family in the upper Midwest in 2017.  

Sam, from Naples, Florida, was working as a podiatric X-ray technician and in medical billing and transcribing in her home state, where plenty of her relatives remain. But she didn’t see any career growth in her position and went back to school, first in Florida and then in South Dakota.  

She said she loves the sense of community in Brookings, even if it took some convincing for her to relocate here.  

“Ultimately, they won. They convinced me to move here. I love the town. It’s a beautiful town, and it’s very different than what I was used to. Main Street looks like a Hallmark movie, especially when it snows. The weather was a nice change of pace, too,” Sam said.   

Never too late  

Sam said her father, Freddy Sr., showed her to not give up on her goals, even when it gets hard. Anything can be done if you keep going and put in the time and effort. Age was never a deterrent for any of them.  

“My dad had always told us, ‘It doesn’t matter how old you are. You’re never too old to go back to school.’ He was proof of that,” she added.  

“It’s never too late. If it’s something you always wanted to do, just go ahead and pursue it,” Freddy Sr. added. “Age should never be a limit.”  

Sam started her studies in mechanical engineering at SDSU. After three years, she decided that field wasn’t for her and made the switch to exercise science, which was much more similar to jobs she’d held in the past.   

Now 34, she has earned her bachelor’s degree and is part of the accelerated 3+2 track in SDSU’s athletic training program. She’s already completed two clinicals, one with the men’s basketball team and the other with the football team, and started a third clinical with the women’s volleyball team this fall. Her final clinical will be back with the men’s basketball team next spring.  

“It’s a very hands-on program. We get to do different clinicals, and for me, I want to work in a Division I setting, so I’m at a perfect location to be studying that,” she said.  

After graduating with her master’s next May, Sam dreams of being an athletic trainer for a university team, working with strength and conditioning coaches, treating and preventing injuries and more.   

Great size, lots of support  

Sam’s fiancé, Jake Melius ’16, is also an SDSU alum, with a degree in sport and recreation management.  

“Just the amount of people who support this school … when I first moved here, I was just blown away,” Sam said. “I’d barely even heard of this college, and you go out and everybody’s just decked out in gear.”  

Looking back on their time at State, both Sam and Freddy Sr. said they valued the individual attention offered here.   

Freddy Sr. said his favorite thing about SDSU was the amount of support he received from faculty. The university and class sizes were small enough to give students one-on-one assistance, but large enough to offer exactly what they were looking for — a place to pursue the careers of their dreams, no matter when they started. 

Written by Jill Fier, University Marketing & Communications