Scholarship Turned Loan Asks For Payment 9 Years After Deferring Eligibility

Location: South Dakota

In 2015, I accepted a state-funded scholarship that covered the full cost of tuition to an in-state school. The scholarship was limited to a critical need occupation and required recipients to live in-state and work in the critical need occupation for the number of years the scholarship was granted + one year (so 2.5 years if I had the scholarship for 1.5 years, 5 years if I had the scholarship for 4 years).

I received this scholarship for 3 semesters, and decided to change majors to pursue a degree that was not considered a "critical need occupation", so I dropped the scholarship and no longer received funding from that point on (dropped eligibility in Jan. 2017).

The scholarship stipulated that if eligibility requirements were no longer met and I did not start working in a critical needs occupation 6 months after earning my baccalaureate degree, the scholarship would be turned into a low interest loan.

I graduated in May 2019, so by the requirements of this scholarship I would have had to be employed in a "critical need occupation" in South Dakota by November 2019.

The scholarship organization was supposed to verify eligibility of the scholarship annually with the college (which they did not) as well as the status of my employment annually, but I did not receive any form of correspondence from them until today, 6 years and 3 months after the required employment start date (and 9 years after I stopped receiving funding). They asked me to verify my employment for the first time and requested that I convert my scholarship into a loan if I do not meet the requirements.

Because they did not verify eligibility with the college or myself like the terms stipulate, I think my case went under the radar.

The Statute of Limitations on debts in South Dakota requires an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay a note payable within 6 years. An action to enforce has not occurred within 6 years and the scholarship has not been converted to a loan, so it is not technically a note payable at this time.

So my question is, do I have to pay this back?

Any and all help is incredibly appreciated. I added a couple links in case you would like to skim through the scholarship requirements and SD statue of limitations laws. Thank you for any advice you're able to share!

Here is a link to the scholarship:
FAQs: https://tdx.sdbor.edu/TDClient/33/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=391

Verification Status details: https://tdx.sdbor.edu/TDClient/33/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=378

Here is a link to SD Law 57A-3-118. Statute of limitations: https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/57A-3-118