MITCHELL, S.D. (KELO) – Economic growth, inflation and unemployment rates were just a few topics students at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell collected data on this semester.
In this first-of-its-kind course at the school, the economics class partnered with the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office and local professionals to better understand the Mitchell area.
DWU’s Principles of Macroeconomics course has spent the last few months creating a 66-page report on Mitchell’s economy.
“It’s a way to get buy-in from students so that they’re understanding that they do actually have an impact,” Tracy Dice, professor of business and economics at DWU said.
Morgan Edelman, a junior at DWU, spent the past semester researching Mitchell’s income expenses, cost of living and commute time.
“One thing our group found in our income portion was in 2020, actually those who earn less than a high school degree were making more than those who had some college experience,” Edelman said.
Edelman is studying accounting and says this class helped her gain real-world experience while pursuing her degree.
“I was super excited to be able to do a hands-on project like this,” she said. “It just helps you learn everything and just be able to apply those concepts you learn in class that much better.”
Quenton Walls, a freshman at DWU, is also studying accounting and looks forward to people reading the report.
“So being able to hope that the Mitchell community and even the people in South Dakota will be able to understand the information is like the most exciting for me, how well it worked the project,” Walls said.
Mike Lauritsen, the CEO of Mitchell Area Development Corporation and Chamber, says he’ll use this data to help grow the economy.
“It’ll be so much fun to track all of this data for the next ten years and see what did actually make a difference or maybe something that we implemented as a city didn’t have the impact that we wanted to and we’ll have that data in the reports to be able to show that,” Dice said.
You can find the full report on the South Dakota Secretary of State’s website.