Cooperatives, like one student, won’t let obstacles get in the way of what’s important.
Madison Ryckman, a senior at Oakes High School is the daughter of Buffy and Kevin Ryckman. Dakota Valley Electric Cooperative chose Madison as its 2015 scholarship recipient. Every year, DVEC partners with Basin Electric Power Cooperative to offer a $1,000 scholarship to students in the service area. This year, Madison w
as one of 18 students who applied.
She wrote about cooperatives and innovation as part of an essay for the scholarship. This year, the essay subject was: “Pick one of the four values of innovation, accountability, integrity and commitment to community and describe how you see this value in action at your local cooperative.”
Madison wrote about how her electric cooperative overcame challenges when it was established 75 years ago. Likewise, Madison used innovation to mount her horse after she broke her collarbone.
Read her essay:
“Innovation is creativity with a job to do.” This quote by John Emmerling describes the basic characteristic of what it means to be innovative. Without innovation, there wouldn’t be change, and without change the world would not become better. We need creative minds in order to advance technology, do our jobs better, and better service our communities.
Personally, I have had my fair share of innovation through horse training. Not all horses are the same, but the job is to train them at a certain skill or make them better at one they already know. This requires coming up with innovative solutions to cater to each horse. This past summer, I broke my collarbone and wasn’t supposed to ride horse. I am a competitive barrel racer and wasn’t going to let this bring me down. I conditioned my horses on the ground and once I was given the okay to ride, I mounted from the opposite side so I could get my job done.
Just like my ways in training horses and dealing with an injury, Dakota Valley Electric is innovative in customer relations and technology. Dakota Valley Electric started in 2000 from two small cooperatives. Now, 15 years later, they service 6,129 consumers in rural areas from Ashley to the East border and Jamestown to the South border. None of the expansions would have been possible without the pioneering minds that started the company. They have excellent customer relations and a genuine concern for their communities; in fact, through Operation Round Up they have raised $359,112 for 438 local individuals. Dakota Valley Electric is one of 625 electric cooperatives in the nation to partner up with Touchstone Energy, which allows them to provide us with the latest electrical technology. Innovation isn’t a quality that only scientists or explorers can claim. It’s in me, it’s in you, and it’s in our local electric cooperatives.