BEMIDJI-Andrea Goodwin's eyes welled up before her name was even called.
Bill Blackwell, Jr., executive director of the American Indian Resource Center at Bemidji State University, had dropped too many hints: her same-computer-same-time work ethic and the time she volunteers tutoring and mentoring other students, including Blackwell's wife, who's working toward the same social work degree.
Goodwin was named Outstanding American Indian Student of the Year at an annual awards and recognition banquet Thursday evening. University leaders awarded academic honors to more than 100 American Indian students, including Goodwin, who is also one of 41 scholars who are set to earn an undergraduate degree at the university's commencement ceremony next month. Another three American Indian students are set to earn graduate degrees.
"So, all of you today that are graduating, just know that I certainly see you. The lieutenant governor certainly sees you. We all see you," said Dennis Olson, Jr., Minnesota's first American Indian commissioner of higher education and a former classmate of Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the first American Indian woman elected to statewide office. "For those who are on their path: do not give up. Use every possible resource you can, and just know that I'm all the way behind you. And it's not just me. I'm bringing our whole community with us to make sure that we're behind you and we support you. We need you in our communities."
Blackwell and other staff handed out special stoles to each soon-to-be graduate as a crowd of faculty, staff, family members and other well-wishers applauded. The students wear the new garment over their graduation robes.
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"A lot of times when you're at banquets they ask you to hold your round of applause to the end," Blackwell said. "That's not this kind of banquet."
Goodwin, a member of Red Lake Nation, earned her associate's degree from Leech Lake Tribal College in 2009, and went back to school at Bemidji State in the fall of 2016. She's held down a 3.97 cumulative GPA at the university.
When she graduates next month, Goodwin will be a third-generation BSU alum: her mother and grandmother both earned social work degrees there, too. Goodwin hopes to parlay an internship at Red Lake's Family and Children Services, which her mom heads, into a full-time job there. She said she wants to work on a project that aims to shift financial responsibility for child welfare services to the Ojibwe band from Beltrami County.
"I really hope to be a pivotal role in exerting our sovereignty and also helping our agency... become self-sufficient," Goodwin told the Pioneer.
The banquet on Thursday was the 39th the university has hosted, and it also recognized some students' cultural and community-minded bodies of work.
Jacqueline Allen earned the resource center's Community Leadership Award; Serena Graves was awarded the Earl Nyholm Culture and Language Award; and Chelsey Jourdain won the Roger Aitken Leadership Award.
