Brandon Griffin designing an animated video course at Stukent in Idaho Falls. See how it works in the video above. | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com

Do you want to know what’s happening in the eastern Idaho business scene? We’ve got you covered. Here is a rundown of this week’s business news across the valley.

BIZ BUZZ

IDAHO FALLS

Local company that makes digital courseware for students turns 10

IDAHO FALLS – After building one of Inc 5000’s “fastest-growing private companies in America,” Stuart Draper is looking forward to the next phase of life.

The 40-year-old Idaho Falls man stepped down as CEO of Stukent earlier this year. It’s a company he started in 2014 to make sure schools and universities had access to updated textbooks.

A decade later, it’s served more than a million students worldwide.

Stukent provides digital courseware content for about 1,000 universities and high schools. From a 25,000-square-foot building at 1755 International Way in Idaho Falls, about 175 employees work with professors to provide 45 online courses. Most of them revolve around business topics. Two of the most popular courses are digital marketing and social media marketing.

The business continues to grow and evolve after being listed among the nation’s fastest-growing companies for the last six years, and 2024 marks 10 years since its launch. The community is invited to celebrate this milestone on Thursday with a tour and open house of its new building.

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Jim Holm was hired as Stukent’s new CEO in February. He’s impressed with everything Draper and his team accomplished, and he’s eager to build on that vision.

“It’s been fun to see the great thing that’s been built. I wasn’t here for the journey that got us here, but I have an interesting perspective on where we’re at now,” Holm says.

The company’s claim to fame is its simternship model. It’s a 10-week digital simulation for students to practice hands-on skills in the workplace. Brandon Griffin is one of the videographers who creates this content. Get a taste of how it’s made in the video above.

Holm says many students aren’t coming out of college with relevant real-world experience and this simulation gives them the ability to compete in the job market after graduation.

“Focusing on the skills you need as a first-time employee with two years of experience is critical in order to help students with the transition from education into employment,” says Holm.

Holm previously worked for a Boston-based company called Examity, which provides remote proctoring services for universities so students can take exams anywhere in the world instead of going to the testing center.

He met the investment team for Stukent in Utah last year. Realizing how similar the customer base was, Holm was interested in being involved.

“Education technology is a relatively small world, but this is completely different from what I’ve done previously,” Holm explains.

After 10 years of putting everything he had into building Stukent, Draper says he wanted to have more time with his family.

Still, Draper is the company’s second-largest shareholder and remains on its board of directors as he pursues other business interests.

What he’s most proud of during his tenure is seeing the positive impact his company had on the lives of employees.

“We’ve helped over 100 people buy and sell homes through their income from Stukent. For the majority of them, it was their first home purchase. So the work we’ve done with our startup has really had an impact on the local economy,” Draper says.

He expresses gratitude for every team member who played a role in getting the business to this point, and he’s eager to see what Holm does with it.

“I’m really excited to watch Jim take it to the next level,” says Draper.

Holm says they’re working with Jim and Earl Stice, two emeritus accounting professors from Brigham Young University, to build new courses in this field of study.

Holm says the overall goal is to make the software more immersive to “close the gap” between traditional learning and digital simulations so that students “have a leg up” in the job market after they graduate.

“We’re really proud of our heritage of being in eastern Idaho. We love it here and the work ethic of the team members and the creativity they bring,” he says.

Thursday’s tour and open house will begin with a ribbon-cutting of the new building. It begins at 4:30 p.m. Food, drinks and family activities will be provided.

BIZ BITS

Portneuf Primary Care celebrating a decade of business

POCATELLO – Portneuf Primary Care is in its 10th year of delivering high-quality, individualized care to the community.

Services include examinations, health screenings, immunizations, treatment of short and long-term medical conditions, ongoing care of chronic problems, lab work and palliative care.

The team of physicians bring expertise and a personal investment in the education and treatment of their patients.

“It is an honor to commemorate the remarkable 10-year anniversary of the Portneuf Primary Care Clinic and this team of providers,” said Jordan Herget, CEO and President, Portneuf Medical Center. “Please join me in thanking this team for providing exceptional patient care and for their ongoing dedication to improving the health and well-being of our community.”

To schedule an appointment with Portneuf Primary Care, call (208) 239-3815. For an appointment with Specialized Family Medicine, call (208) 269-7147.

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A divided Supreme Court seemed skeptical that Idaho’s strict abortion ban conflicts with a federal emergency care law, but there appeared to be a split by gender as well as ideology during the nearly two hours of argument. 

The four female justices, including conservative Amy Coney Barrett, pushed back the hardest against Idaho’s assertion that its law, which prohibits doctors from performing an abortion except when a woman’s life is in danger, supersedes the federal emergency care statute EMTALA. 

Doctors face up to five years in prison for violating Idaho’s law. 

The liberal justices in particular asked detailed questions about what would constitute a medical emergency, zeroing in on complications that would rob a woman of her reproductive organs or put her at risk of sepsis.  

The case centers on a federal law known as EMTALA, or the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which requires federally funded hospitals to provide stabilizing care to emergency room patients no matter their ability to pay.    

The Biden administration argues that even in states where abortion is banned, EMTALA says hospitals must be allowed to terminate pregnancies in rare emergencies where a patient’s life or health is at serious risk.   

Barrett had sharp questions for Idaho’s attorney Joshua Turner over just how much discretion doctors really have to make decisions in medical emergencies that may not be life threatening.  

Turner argued that the laws allows decisions to be made on a case-by-case basis, but Barrett was critical of that argument and accused Turner of “hedging.” 

Barrett’s questioning doesn’t always give an indication of how she will vote, and the three liberal justices need at least two conservatives to side with them in order for the Biden administration to win the case.  

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