Monday, January 9, 2012PIERRE, S.D. – College students have several new internship opportunities thanks to a partnership between four South Dakota businesses and the State of South Dakota. The companies –East River Electric Power Cooperative in Madison, Innovative Materials and Processes in Rapid City, Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village in Mitchell, and Secure Banking Solutions in Madison -just received Dakota Seeds grants from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) to create five internships. East River Electric Power Cooperative East River Electric will hire one engineering intern to complete design and technical document work. East River Electric is a wholesale electric power supplier that serves rural electric cooperatives and municipally-owned electrical systems in more than 60 counties in eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota. Innovative Materials and Processes Innovative Materials and Processes will hire one graduate assistant to complete research on a new Department of Defense decoy. Innovative Materials and Processes conducts research for the U.S. Department of Defense in the areas of energetic and pyrophoric materials. Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village will hire an archeological intern to work on excavation projects, as well as cataloging and sorting the archeological discoveries. Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village is a six-acre archeological site along the west bank of Lake Mitchell. Secure Banking Solutions Secure Banking Solutions will hire two interns to work on information security programs in the banking and healthcare fields. Secure Banking Solutions offers comprehensive information security consulting to financial institutions. The Dakota Seeds program provides South Dakota companies with a pipeline of well-qualified full-time employment candidates, and provides students with solid job opportunities in South Dakota. Last year, the Dakota Seeds program partnered with 57 companies to create 134 internships. Dakota Seeds grants provide funding to assist with internship wages. The grants cover up to one-half of a position’s wages. Grants are funded by The National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, administered by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and approved quarterly by the Workforce Development Council. For more information, visit www.dakotaseeds.com - 30 -