CAPITAL Corporate News

Partnership creates opportunity for SDSU graduate students
March 16, 2007

BROOKINGS, S.D. – South Dakota State University and CAPITAL Card Services, Inc. formalized a significant partnership March 19, 2007 that is a tangible result of the new Ph.D. in Computational Science and Statistics at State.

President David Chicoine and CAPITAL’s President and CEO Jeff Aegerter will sign an agreement between the entities at the Brookings office of CAPITAL, 3101 Capital Street, northwest of the Swiftel Center, on Monday, March 19 at
10 a.m.

CAPITAL is establishing a $100,000 fund to provide fellowships for students in the SDSU Mathematics and Statistics Department’s Ph.D. and master’s degree programs.

“We have a strong need for students who have a skill set based around robust problem solving and the traditional finance route doesn’t always address these needs,” said Chuck Hendrickson, CAPITAL’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

The SDSU Computational Science and Statistics program was created in 2005. Currently six students are in the Ph.D. program and another 19 are part of a master’s track.

“In order to offer our graduate students real world computational challenges, we welcome collaboration with CAPITAL Card Services, Inc. a leader in portfolio management and credit card outsourcing,” said Kurt Cogswell, professor and head of SDSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

The Fellowship Fund was established to facilitate and coordinate work between the two institutions to solve financial problems with advanced statistical techniques and modeling software.

The fund provides graduate stipends and is dedicated to increasing the number of students studying the mathematics of finance at SDSU. Chad Noble, Manager of Portfolio Analytics for CAPITAL, serves on the departmental advisory board.

“This important collaboration helps us prepare graduates with skills to enhance economic growth in the region and throughout the country,” said David Chicoine, SDSU President. “We’re grateful for the partnership with CAPITAL to fulfill some of the high aspirations we have to offer graduate students.”