Jackrabbit in the spotlight / Sydnee Hubner

Since her sophomore year, Sydnee Hubner has been an ambassador for the Raven Precision Agriculture Center. She could also be the poster child for hard work and achievement.

The senior agriculture and biosystems engineering major from Pipestone, Minnesota, came to South Dakota State University with a distinguished resume and has only built upon that in her four years here. The most recent entry is receipt of a national scholarship through the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.

Hubner received the $2,000 Adams Scholarship, making her one of two students from the department to earn a national ASABE award this year.

Her road to SDSU was clear cut. “I didn’t even do a campus visit. I knew I was going to SDSU. It is close and quite cost efficient. I knew it was a great place for ag. I wasn’t sure what my major would be, but I did know that SDSU would have something for me in the ag department.” 

It didn’t hurt that her sister had earned a nursing degree at State in 2015.

Hubner is the youngest of three daughters. Their parents are a nurse and the maintenance man for the town of Holland, Minnesota. When Hubner was growing up, her dad was the ultimate multitasker, splitting time between four jobs. Those genes got passed along to Hubner.

In high school, she worked four jobs, played three sports (tennis, gymnastics and track), was “super active” at church and played guitar on the worship team.

Lands internship with Deere dealer

At SDSU, her resume only grew. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t a surprise when Hubner and Sam Meyer (the other 2024-25 ASABE scholarship winner) were named the outstanding freshmen in their department.

In February of her freshman year (2022), she went to the college’s Engineering Career Fair with six resumes and a desire to land a summer internship. She got interviews and three offers. Hubner, who had never traveled beyond South Dakota and Minnesota, opted for a multilocation John Deere dealership based in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. 

Her title was head corporate sales intern with 21^st Century Equipment. “It was so stinkin’ fun,” the effervescent Hubner said.

She evaluated equipment, set up AutoTrack guidelines and worked with John Deere software, experienced machine failures and troubleshot with customers as well as working multi-unit deals and trades for major customers. “They said every piece of equipment was mine to play with as long as I didn’t break it.”

That didn’t happen, but she did enjoy working alongside the technical team that did remote repair as well as doing customer demos.

‘Wrenches on planters’ at Kinze

This January to August she interned as a test engineer with Kinze Manufacturing in Williamsburg, Iowa. There she “wrenched on planters in the shop” as well as doing computer-aided design of parts for planters and grain carts. In the winter, she was part of a crew that worked in the South from dawn to dusk testing new planters.

Back in Iowa, she worked with the prototype crew to revamp a grain cart and did the more technical CAD work on shields for the grain cart auger system.

The half-year long internship is why the 4.0 student won’t graduate until December 2025.

When she does, “only Jesus knows” what she will do next. “I loved Kinze. I would love to be a test engineer.” But Hubner also spent time at an Alaska Bible camp this summer and definitely has interest in working in ministry. She said leading a Bible study with the Christian campus organization Navigators has been her favorite SDSU experience.

Future plans: TBD

Regardless, department head Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan sees a bright future for one of the prized students. “Regardless of whatever opportunity she lands, Sydnee has a bright future and will reach new heights because of her passion towards achieving excellence above and beyond,” he said

Even ag education is a possibility down the road. She started as an ag ed/ag engineering double major and received the FFA American Degree in 2022. It’s an award that only goes to 1% of the group’s membership.

Muthu added, “Sydnee has made an outstanding impact wherever she has gone and whatever she has done. I'm super confident that will be no different in her postcollegiate career and reaching new heights with super cool passion and outlook.”