Bemidji Pioneer: A record class at Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ: Banquet honors school’s largest group of American Indian graduates

BEMIDJI—A record number of American Indian students are set to graduate from Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ this spring.

That was one of several highlights at Thursday night’s 38th annual American Indian Student Awards Recognition Banquet, where Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ staff recognized 51 American Indian soon-to-be graduates.

“It’s a celebration, commencement-style, but with a cultural component to it,” said Bill Blackwell, Jr., who heads the school’s American Indian Resource Center. “That’s why I think a lot of our students really enjoy it.”

The banquet featured an honor song, an invocation and a keynote address by Ursula Knoki-Wilson, a high-level administrator in the Indian Health Service.

The 51 students recognized Thursday is the largest graduating class of American Indian students at the university, Blackwell told the Pioneer, adding that Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ has about the same number of American Indian graduates as other institutions where a greater percentage of the student body is American Indian. Last year, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ graduated 33 American Indian students, and the year before it graduated 43.

Here is a list of banquet honorees:

• Early Nyholm Culture and Language Award (for outstanding leadership in culture and language): Jon Daniel, who co-facilitates the resource center’s Ojibwe Language Table, is a McNair Scholar, and works at the Red Lake Immersion Headstart.

• AIRC Community Leadership Award (for outstanding leadership in the community): Sage Miletich, a nursing major who represented the nursing program at the 66th Annual National Student Nurses Association Convention representing Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ. Miletich is a McNair Scholar, Student Nursing Association, Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Scholar.

• Roger Aitken Leadership Award (for outstanding leadership on campus): Sterling Knox. Sterling is a AIRC front desk worker, McNair Scholar, sits on The President’s student council, and helps out students in a variety of ways behind the scenes.

• Outstanding American Indian Student of the Year: Madeline Treuer, a McNair Scholar and last year’s Outstanding American Indian Student of the Year; a Peer Advisor who co-facilitates the Ojibwe Language Table.