Tammy Staudinger - Course Materials Associate Tammy Staudinger - Course Materials Associate Q: How do you help with students? A: I help them find out if they need books and where they’re located and what is the best cost alternative for them as well. Q: What is your favorite part about helping students? A: Helping students, honestly. I want to make sure that if a student comes in that I kind of understand if they need the book, what their financial availability is, beca

Bismarck State College became a four-year college only a year ago and has since added numerous baccalaureate degrees to their roster. With 14 available programs and partnerships with other North Dakota educational institutions, it can be easy to get lost among the rapid academic changes. Here is a guide to some of the four-year degree options. Behavioral Health BSC offers a Bachelor of Applied Science in Behavioral Health. This degree prepares students for careers in human a

Encouraging Words - Governor Kelly Armstrong delivered the Conference’s Opening Speech The 2026 Annual North Dakota Public Information Officer Association Training Conference in the Bismarck State College National Energy Center for Excellence. The conference ran from July 13 to July 15. Each day included presentations from media-trained speakers who imparted on attendees the wisdom they had gained from years working in the field. On the first day of the conference, NDPIO

Bismarck State College President - Dr. Brian Kalk Dear MysticNation, One of the best parts of being president at Bismarck State College is having a front-row seat to the incredible things happening across campus. Nearly every week, I have opportunities to celebrate student success, visit with students and employees, showcase our programs to industry leaders, welcome alumni back to campus, and meet future Mystics who are considering BSC. All those conversations remind me w

1) Locate the Financial Aid office and IT help desk on the first floor of Schafer Hall. They are able to answer all of your questions related to student finances and technological issues. 2) Check out the coffee shops around campus! Each coffee shop has a wide section of drinks and even offers food items like soup, sandwiches, and sweet treats. They also offer a punch card system for items that are purchased. 3) Student Union is the place to hang out with friends but it also

I caught myself scrolling past vertical videos of horrific images and war crimes the other day, with cute kittens doing silly things for a short break in between. Thank God for those cats, otherwise I would have kept scrolling. Thankfully, after a few videos of cats, I lost interest and put down my phone. This scenario is not real—at least, parts of it aren’t. I do not have violent videos in my Instagram feed. Actually, it’s mostly cat videos. But I know that there is anothe

Mystic Media Editor - Sophia Fafard While this is my last letter from the editor, it is the first of many things for all of us. You, dear reader, will not be seeing my face on campus as I leave for UND this fall, taking my experiences at BSC with me to begin a new adventure on the other side of the state. While a part of me is sad, I am excited to see what the upcoming year has in store. I could go on about leaving, but I would rather talk about how proud I am of this new

MystiCast Executive Producer - Isaiah Johnson Likely, I’m not the first person to tell you that Avatar: The Last Airbender is a masterpiece of a television show. I was one of those people who had heard how masterful it was for a few years but wasn’t too interested in watching it. That began to change when I saw just how many videos my favorite YouTuber uploaded praising nearly every aspect of the show. So, last year, I watched the whole series with my sisters, and I can co

GEAR UP! - Featured is the brand new BSC football apparel. Anticipation builds as to when gear will be available for purchase by the public. The Bismarck State College Mystics Football team has been busy recruiting potential athletes this summer. Head Coach Chris Stutzriem traveled to several camps to promote the team and seek out talent for the Mystics. “We’re going to, let’s say, North Dakota State [University]. They’ll host a camp,” Stutzriem said. “Last weekend there w

Rick Ripplinger - Women's Wrestling Head Coach Bismarck State College has welcomed a new head coach to their women’s wrestling team, Capital Trophy owner and former Legacy High School girls’ wrestling coach Rick Ripplinger. Ripplinger joined the college in May and has already begun working to recruit women for the team, which will be entering its second season in the fall. Ripplinger himself wrestled from 6th grade through his fifth year at Valley City State University, whe

Giddy Up! - Tyler Hansen competes in tie down roping in Mandan for the BSC College Rodeo This summer, Bismarck State College Senior Tyler Hansen won the college’s first-ever national rodeo championship. On June 20, during the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming, Hansen achieved a first-place finish in the men’s tie-down roping category as well as in the men’s all-around with a 10th-place finish in team roping. His scores at the competition included an 8.4 in rou

Boat Day! - Mygel's cabin out for their tubing ride. Summer camp has a special place in my heart. Unfortunately I never got the opportunity to go to camp as a camper. The closest I got to that feeling was going on a couple “father-son” retreats where the whole weekend is just tailored to us, but I never went to a weeklong summer camp growing up. It is something that looking back I wish I got to do, but I digress. This summer I got the opportunity to lead again at Castaway

Kayden Schmitcke (left), Liberty Friez (middle), and Sophia Fafard (right) stop for a photo before entering Canada. Over a weekend in July, Sophia took Kayden and me to her home back in Rocanville, Saskatchewan. We left on a Friday, and some road construction and a mishap with Google maps turned a four-hour trip into an eight-hour excursion. Oh well! Frustrating at the time, but now we look back on it fondly. We arrived around 10 that night, exiting the car and being bom

Water Meets Ingenuity - Pictured is the bottom side of the Hoover Dam and the entrance of the Colorado River. Started in 1931, the Hoover Dam was the largest dam in the world during this time and supplied much needed energy and clean water to millions of people. Nothing says summer like a girls trip! Over the last couple days of July, our family decided to take a generational Vegas girls trip with my grandma, my mom, my sister Kayla Hilzendeger, and me. We stayed at the Pari

High school students gather to learn about acting techniques as they rehearse with experienced professionals. The theatre camp group reads through a script in the Advanced Technology Center’s Rogers Black Box Theatre. From July 15 to 18, Bismarck State College hosted a camp aimed at helping students grades 9 through 12 refine their theatre skills. The camp, which ran for its second consecutive year, was organized and run by Camp Director and BSC Associate Professor of Tech