A Learned Legacy

Family legacies are painstaking to create and a challenge to uphold. New Jackrabbit alumna Abby Bruns is up for that challenge.

An ag business major with minors in animal science and ranch management, Abby is the fourth generation in her family line to take over their long-held ranching operation. While she always intended to take the reins, she knew she wanted a college education to prepare her for a lifelong career in agriculture and all that comes with it. Thanks to the support of scholarships, Abby’s made the most of her Jackrabbit years, soaking up experiences and knowledge that will serve her for decades to come.

Though it’s been said that an education is truly priceless, it was donors of the yellow and blue community that paid the price for Abby to maintain the Bruns legacy – and she plans on paying it forward by implementing everything she’s learned along the way.

While many Jackrabbits hail from small towns, Abby’s upbringing might trump the most rural of roots. The family ranch is located near Rushville, Nebraska, which boasts a population of around 600 people. Abby faced a 30-minute commute to get to town and traveled 50 minutes each day to get to school – and that was a journey to the “larger” school she enrolled in through high school. In her elementary years, Abby attended the last remaining one-room schoolhouse operating in Nebraska. Comprised of one room, one teacher, and a couple of paraprofessionals, the “country school,” as Abby calls it, instructed students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It’s a place she looks back on fondly, though she recalls being ready and willing to shift to a traditional school in Rushville for middle school, followed by enrollment in Gordon for high school.

When the time came to look at colleges, Abby searched for a next chapter that would be about four hours from home, leaving her the ability to visit on occasion, yet granting her the distance to build her independence. Once she compared the tuition rates for universities on her list, South Dakota State was the clear forerunner.

Over the last four years at State, Abby gained a wealth of knowledge to train her for what it would be like to be responsible for her own ranch, including a favorite class that specialized on the subject. She became a Distinguished Scholar, joined a church group, and secured employment as a Student Engagement Officer at the SDSU Foundation. In her role, Abby created compelling content and forged relationships with donors to SDSU, offering alumni and friends an inside look at what it’s like to be a Jackrabbit student. Through her job and through her time as a student, Abby says that it’s the people she’s met who made the greatest difference in her college experience.

“Everyone you meet, you meet for a reason – whether it’s to push you to be a better version of yourself or to help you grow, there’s always a reason,” she explains. “I’ve learned to not take for granted all the different people and opportunities that are out there if I’m just willing to take the time to look for them.”

Despite her time studying all things agriculture, Abby very nearly chose a different path altogether, though that path would have likely led to SDSU, in any case. Abby’s mother, Michelle, is an SDSU alum who secured her master’s in nursing at the Rapid City campus. Growing up, Abby planned on following in Michelle’s footsteps, aiming to join the medical arena. That all changed when the COVID-19 pandemic first struck in 2020. At the time, Abby was still in high school and living at home. She witnessed the impact and toll the pandemic took on her mother as a nurse, taken aback by the field she’d once planned to pursue. Being quarantined at home meant Abby spent even more time around the ranch with her dad, Craig, accompanying him on his daily routine and tasks. In those months, she realized she might want to become the fourth generation of Bruns ranch owners, after all.

After graduation in May, Abby moved home and joined her dad at the helm of the ranch. Over the next decade or so, the two plan on slowly transitioning responsibilities so that Abby can step up and Craig can look into retirement. Though she opted to follow in her dad’s footsteps, she still plans to honor her interest in healthcare and stepping into her mom’s shoes. In the winter months when things are slower on the homestead, Abby intends to obtain her CNA license and pick up shifts at nursing homes in the area.

The prospect of taking on a full-scale ranching operation is intimidating for Abby, especially given the volatile career field and the unpredictability of cattle markets. Now more than ever, she’s appreciative that student loans and debt are one less burden to juggle.

When asked what she might say to the scholarship donors who made her Jackrabbit experience possible, she replies without hesitation.

Over the last four years, Abby believes that one of the greatest benefits of the scholarship support she received was simply the opportunity to feel present: to focus on her schoolwork, make lasting friendships and connections, and immerse herself in experiences that will guide her for the rest of her career. Now back in small-town Rushville, she’s equipped with big ambitions – and she’ll be far from the person who left.

This version of Abby? She’s ready for what’s next, stepping into a legacy she was born into, thanks to the education she chose for herself.

“It’s daunting to think of taking it over, but SDSU has prepared me for that. It is a business, and there’s so many different lives on your hands and a lot of responsibility, between the cattle and being a good steward of the land,” she reflects. “In the last four years, I’ve come to peace with the idea that I can actually do this career and that I have what it takes to be successful, as long as I try.”