Donor Spotlight: Beth Shipman-Habicht '66

“My heart came alive in the USF music department. It still does.”

Beth Shipman-Habicht, a 1966 music education graduate, credits Sioux Falls College with changing the course of her life. As the first in her family to attend college, she found opportunity and deep encouragement from professors who nurtured her musical gifts and her faith.

While at USF, Beth played saxophone and bassoon and sang in the choir. She joined the choir’s first European tour the summer after she graduated—an unforgettable experience for someone from modest beginnings. 

“We toured all the places I’d only dreamed about,” she recalls.

Her teaching career began in Iowa, then took a pivotal turn two years later when a shortage of string instructors led the Worthington, Minnesota school district to hire her and fund her string training. 

“I had always wanted to learn violin so this was an unbelievable gift,” she says. 

That gift launched 38 years of orchestra teaching, a master’s degree and her own journey as a violinist and cellist in the Worthington community.

Today, Beth’s legacy continues—not only through music, but through her generous support of USF. She serves on the Board of Trustees, has taken two more trips abroad with the USF choir and gives faithfully through donations and estate planning. 

“It all goes back to Sioux Falls College,” she says. “They opened the door to this amazing life. The only way to repay that is to pay it forward.”

Beth’s giving reflects her desire to preserve the spirit of God on campus and ensure future students feel the same sense of belonging she found decades ago. 

“It’s a place that feels like home,” she says. “I’m happy to be able to say thank you in this way.”

After retirement, Beth continues to stay involved in music by helping establish the Great Plain String Quartet and the Worthington Area Symphony Orchestra, where you can still hear her play today.