A Tale of Two Cities:
Why the Commute?
You don’t have to live in a community to feel part of it as
women like Stacy Starzl are finding.
Starzl lives in Yankton, SD but commutes for her full-time
job as a program assistant in the University of South Dakota’s
student services.
“After working ten years in Yankton as a director, the
university in Vermillion had all the career opportunities that
I was looking for to further my career,” Starzl said. “The
University of South Dakota is just a great place to have a career
and continue working on that career.”
Starzl said she knows a lot of other women in Yankton and
surrounding areas who commute to work as well.
“A lot of people commute from Sioux Falls to the University
as well,” she said.
It would seem that the University is a good draw for the
workforce showing that good career opportunities are worth the
drive.
“The university is just a great atmosphere, a great climate
to work in,” Starzl said. “You get to work with students as well
as families and great staff and the organization itself is an
amazing organization to work for.”
Far from feeling like an outsider, Starzl enjoys having a foot in
two communities.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “I get the best of both
communities. Both Yankton and Vermillion are great
communities to live in and I get to see and be a part of both
those communities. Just knowing individuals and professionals
in both communities is a great networking tool. Everywhere
you go everyone is just so pleasant. It’s a very South Dakota
small-town feel. It’s really an awesome feeling to just go into a
restaurant or a store and be able to say hi and recognize those
faces.”
There are not many downsides to the commute according to
Starzl.
“The only challenge I’ve come across is bad weather but you
also have that when you live across town so I really haven’t had
any challenges with commuting,” she said. “I liked working in
the same town that I lived in, however now the opportunities
are much larger at the University so the 25-minute commute is
a small drawback compared to the opportunities that I’m being
given here at the University.”
Juggling family life can be a challenge when the commute is
longer.
“Maybe making it to my daughter’s sporting events is a
challenge, not being just five minutes away where I could run
over there and do that,” Starzl said. “But she’s older and
understands and we’re able to work that out whereas if I had
little ones it wouldn’t be as easy.”
Starzl does have two daughters attending the University of
South Dakota and the commute actually helps her connect with
them more.
Though her
work and many
connections and
friends are in
Vermillion, Starzl
has good reason for
continuing to reside
in Yankton.
“My daughter
is a big part of
that reason,” she
said. “She has
established friends
and a home in
our neighborhood
in Yankton. She’s
16 and it’s hard
Stacy Starzl is one of the many women
to uproot a teenager
commuting from one town to another
and move them in the
pursuing career opportunities
middle of their high
school years.”
Starzl herself has many ties both to people and places in
Yankton that she wishes to keep unbroken.
“I have established really great friendships and family in
Yankton that I really won’t ever move from,” she said. “The
recreational area that I use almost every weekend in Yankton is
huge to me. It’s why I moved back from Rapid City after I moved
away after high school. Some people take our lake and our
recreation area for granted and it’s definitely a plus for me.”
vBy Sarah Wetzel
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HERVOICE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015v5