Doria (Drost) Esche to Speak at Mustang Success Night, Sept. 9

Published Thursday, August 27, 2026

Keynote speaker: Doria (Drost) Esche '19/MBA '21

The Deeann Griebel Student Success Center at SMSU is hosting their annual Mustang Success Night on Wednesday, Sept. 9 from 7-9 p.m. in the SMSU Conference Center.

The program features a support services fair and a major exploration fair to help students learn about the many services available to support their success and guide them on their academic path at SMSU.

The keynote presentation will be presented by Doria (Drost) Esche '19/MBA '21. Esche brings her story of involvement, enthusiasm, and genuine love of SMSU to share with this year’s class of new students.

In 2017, Esche 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. Esche received a master’s in business administration (MBA) with a concentration in leadership in 2021. Just three short years later, she worked as the director of marketing at Denny Sanford PREMIER Center-ASM Global in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Today she is the Digital Content Supervisor for the City of Sioux Falls.

Originally from Poquoson, Virginia, Esche 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 to competing in Forensics speech competitions. She completed her bachelor’s degree in two years and jumped into the master’s program for the next two years while also serving as a graduate assistant in the SMSU Student Success Center 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.

Esche lives in Sioux Falls with her husband.

SMSU is delighted to have Esche as the keynote to inspire and invigorate the first-year students this fall.

Students who attend and complete the evaluation will be entered to win prizes! There is a wide variety of prizes, including the chance to win one of four $250 tuition stipends awarded to first-year students in the program. These stipends will be applied to their Fall 2026 tuition bill.

For descriptions of the sessions, visit https://www.smsu.edu/campuslife/dgssc/mustang-success-night.html

For questions, contact Sarah Brown at Sarah.Brown@SMSU.edu