This week’s Up & Comer is Corey Chicoine, a recent SDSU graduate and new district sales manager at Prairie Brand Seeds.

Name: Corey Chicoine

Age: 24

Hometown: Elk Point

Corey Chicoine

What brought you to Sioux Falls?

I had already decided I wanted to be in the Sioux Falls area before I accepted an internship with Prairie Brand as it is only an hour from my family’s farm outside Elk Point and many of my college friends live here.

What keeps you in Sioux Falls?

The opportunities for recent college graduates are fantastic in Sioux Falls with the Young Professionals Network, Toastmasters and numerous adult intramurals, to name a few. The sheer volume of potential activities to participate in, catering to all interests, can only be described by one word: awesome. All of the different bars and restaurants may be my favorite part, but being barely an hour from Brookings, home of the “Biggest One Day Event in the Dakotas” and the best university in the Dakotas, is hard to beat.

What’s your favorite thing about your job?

My favorite thing about my job is getting to interact with farmers every single day. Agriculture, specifically agronomy, is my passion, so I love listening to farmers explain their operations and helping them find solutions to problems they have.

How did you get connected to your industry?

I majored in agronomy at SDSU and completed three internships before working for Prairie Brand. I did not know exactly what I wanted to do in the ag sector, so I sought after three distinct internships that gave me a fantastic look at the different sides of the industry. I interned at a private ag retailer, an international company and a multi-location co-op. These three unique experiences helped me discover my passion for sales and helping growers.

The Ag & Bio Career Fair at SDSU is where I found all four of my internships. They do such a fantastic job at setting students up for success after college. If I am ever in a position to do so, I would definitely hire an intern to try and give them as worthwhile of an experience as I had and to give back to an industry that has provided so much to me.

Describe working at Prairie Brand in three words.

Flexible, challenging, rewarding.

What’s one business you’d like to see in Sioux Falls that isn’t here now?

Having Uber or Lyft would be nice, but what Sioux Falls really needs is an amusement park. Six Flags Sioux Falls has a nice ring to it.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

In five years, I would like to be a district sales manager for Prairie Brand, living in my own home in the Sioux Falls area, start taking on more responsibility on my family’s farm and become more active in the community and local churches. Oh, and I would like to be near the top of the list of priority points for Jackrabbit season ticket holders.