Doria Drost '19/'21 to Receive Alumni GOLD Award
Published Wednesday, October 02, 2024
Each year the SMSU Alumni Association seeks to recognize alumni and friends who have made significant contributions of time, talent or financial resources to help advance and bring positive recognition to Southwest Minnesota State University. Doria Drost ’19/MBA ’21 is this year's GOLD (Graduate of the Last Decade) Award recipient, presented to a recent graduate of Southwest Minnesota State University. The GOLD Award is to recognize recent graduates with exceptional achievement and significant contribution to the recipient's profession, community/society, or university. The graduate must have graduated within the past ten years.
_ _
Doria Drost likes to stay busy. And to say she’s ‘busy’ is an understatement. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Drost is the 2024 recipient of the SMSU Alumni Association’s Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) Award. She has used her drive to achieve incredible success early on in her career. The GOLD Award is presented to an alumnus who is an up-and-comer within ten years of their graduation from SMSU.
In 2017, she earned her high school diploma from Worthington High School and an associate’s degree from Minnesota West thanks to the post-secondary enrollment option (PSEO) program. She completed her bachelor’s degree in marketing from SMSU in 2019. Drost received a master’s in business administration (MBA) with a concentration in leadership in 2021. Just three short years later, she’s the director of marketing at Denny Sanford PREMIER Center-ASM Global in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Originally from Poquoson, Virginia, Drost spent her teen years in the Worthington area when she moved with her dad near his hometown of Rushmore, Minn. She fast-tracked her way to college, ultimately choosing SMSU when the scholarship offer she received blew a well-known Twin Cities mega-campus off her radar. She lived in Ocean Blvd as a first-year student with the Mustang Traditions living and learning community, then as a resident assistant (RA) in Ocean her second year.
She thinks fondly of her time at SMSU and how her involvement across campus prepared her, from working in the American Marketing Association student chapter with Dr. Denise Gochenouer to competing in Forensics speech competitions under the coaching of Ben and Julie Walker. She found a few ways to stay busy while she finished her bachelor’s degree in two years. She immediately jumped into the master’s program for the next two years, serving as a senior RA in the 2019-2020 academic year, and living in Tracy during the 2020-2021 school year.
Keep in mind, these were the COVID years, and Drost was taking all of her classes online. She was also serving as a graduate assistant in the SMSU Student Success Center in the morning and working full-time in marketing at the Murray County Medical Center in Slayton, Minn. She also managed to find time to become the youngest person to run for state office during the 2020 election cycle.
In Tracy, she bought her first home, served as a marketing consultant for the local EDA as part of a small business development grant, and got involved in the community. In her free time, she was launching and running a business which included selling her handmade creations like jewelry, candles, greeting cards, and home décor at the farmer’s market and ultimately opening a physical storefront on evenings and weekends. Plus, she found time to complete an online certification program in event planning and wedding planning.
Whew.
Just when it looked like she was settled, she saw a job posting for the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center and knew it was time to take a leap. It also meant she could move closer to her family and her boyfriend, Adam, who is now her fiancé.
“The first in-person interview was exciting because it checked so many boxes for me like using my marketing and creative skills, being a community-focused business, and challenging me to grow,” Drost said. “I told Adam ‘I hope I get that job; it would be a dream job.’ The second interview was a tour and introducing me to people. I was thrilled.”
The Denny Sanford PREMIER Center is the primary focus of her job. The complete facilities are owned by the city of Sioux Falls and include the arena, the convention center, and the PREMIER Center. The management of the space is provided by ASM Global, her employer. The marketing and event planning aspects of her expertise shine when she works with major touring events. She likes to find ways to give the visiting musicians a personalized, customized gift to make their appearance in Sioux Falls a special one.
“One of my favorite parts of the job is the artist gifts we do for every tour that comes through. We set up a treat bar backstage and try to stock it with their favorite foods and snacks for the crew, who work really long days,” said Drost. “We create a custom poster for every show and whoever is the headliner, we come up with a special gift for them.”
Putting her creative and research skills to work she likes to make them sentimental. If she can figure out enough about the artist, she can make it very personal. If she can’t make it personal, she focuses on making something they can use and enjoy. Sometimes she can even meet the artist to present them with their gift.
“We hosted Blake Shelton. He wasn't one that I got to meet personally, but I knew that he always wears a denim jacket. You see it when he was on The Voice. That’s kind of his go-to look and I wanted to do something fun with that. So we got this really nice denim jacket and iron-on gems, and since he's married to Gwen Stefani, I’m on the floor of my office the day before the show ironing these gems on the back so that it would say ‘Mr. Stefani.’”
“I didn't get to see his reaction. But I saw a photo of it the next day on Gwen Stefani's Instagram with him posing in the jacket. I thought that was so cool,” she continued. “And just when I thought it couldn’t get any cooler, the story was picked up by Good Morning America.”
Some gifts come together the day before the show, others are months in the making. Iron Maiden came to the PREMIER Center last October. Drost learned the lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, was a licensed commercial pilot who flies the band’s Boeing 757. She also knew they probably didn’t have warm gear for a Midwest October winter. She had custom embroidered patches made for each of the band’s albums, spanning 30 years. She hand-sewed a set of patches on a leather bomber jacket for each band member and a leather pilot’s cap for the lead singer.
“It took me probably four months to sew all of those. It was over 100 patches hand-sewn on leather. Seriously, my blood, sweat, and tears went into those jackets. But so worth it,” said Drost. “Their band manager is a fierce British lady who has been on the road with them for years and when we handed the gifts to her she said, ‘this is the most thoughtful gift they've ever received on any of their tours.’”
“To see a band member share a photo on their personal Instagram from an event in Brazil and they’re wearing the jacket, or the lead singer at a show in Canada wearing the hat. It’s just surreal,” she said. “I just love my job.”
Her day is never a typical day. She starts with a to-do list, but the demands can veer in any direction. She does everything from creating the marketing graphics to analyzing the ticket sales data. She said she loves the variety and that it challenges both sides of her brain, keeping her busy every day.
In addition to her day job, she serves on two nonprofit boards: SiouxperCon and DisruptHR. These groups benefit from the majority of her volunteer time, but she’s also an active member of the Sioux Falls area Sales and Marketing Executives (SME) Chapter and Young Professional Network (YPN) organizations.
Drost lives in Sioux Falls and in her abundant free time, she is planning her December 2024 wedding. After that, she looks forward to contributing more volunteer hours and finding more ways to stay busy.
— —
Celebrate with Drost and all of this year's Alumni Award Recipients at The Southwest Celebration on Friday, October 11, 2024 starting at 5:30pm in the SMSU Conference Center Upper Level.
The evening begins with a social hour with free drinks. The SMSU faculty and students will be on hand from several academic and support programs to showcase the special projects in their areas. At 6:30pm guests will be invited to be seated for a plated, formal dinner follwed by a short program recognizing this year’s award recipients. The evening will close with a Homecoming mixer that will offer a cash bar. The event will have valet parking outside the Conference Center. Tickets are $50 per person and available online at www.SMSUAlumni.com/celebration.
The 2024 Alumni Award recipients include: Graduate of the Last Decade (GOLD) Award presented to Doria Drost ’19/MBA ’21 of Sioux Falls, SD; Alumni Achievement Awards going to Stephen Klein ’75 of Marshall and Deb (Geiver) Norlin ’84 of Brainerd; and Honorary Lifetime Membership in the SMSU Alumni Association being given to Senator Gary Dahms of Redwood Falls.
Articles on each award recipient will be published over the coming days.
Related Articles
