All it took was time, quite a bit of it, for school to finally stick for a man who dropped out of high school and then tech school as he rode a wave of his own making that usually swept him to a party someplace.

“I made some bad choices,” said Granbois, who decided four years ago to try one more time, graduated from BSU in December with degrees in business administration and accounting, and will be there in his gown at today’s commencement ceremony.

“I like knowledge, he said. “I want to become a professor.”

Granbois is this year’s BSU American Indian Resource Center Student of the Year, an award he has no clue how he got, he says. “I feel like I didn’t do anything, but it’s a wonderful thing to put on a resume.”

He is a member of the McNair Scholars Program, a federal initiative that works to prepare first-generation and minority college students to move on to graduate school.

And on the side, he handles the business operations at Positive Vibe Entertainment, a music promotion company he started with a friend.

“We don’t make much money,” he said. “But there is an opportunity to make money.”

If you would like to know Granbois’ motivation for doing something, assume it’s money and you will probably be right — money not just for himself, but for everyone else.

He chose to study business and accounting because that’s where he said the jobs are, the lucrative ones.

Every year he’s a one-man H&R Block, working for BSU’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, and helping his friends file theirs.

And in February at the annual McNair National Conference in Texas, he gave a presentation about the earned income tax credit — how low-income families almost always spend it responsibly, and should be encouraged to seek it.

“It’s an anti-poverty tool,” said Granbois, who surveyed families that received credits of about $5,000. “Who doesn’t want money?”

This tax guru looks about 10 years younger than he is, blending right in with the rest of the campus. Looking at him, no one would guess he spent seven or eight years out of school, finally returning after a stint at BI-CAP’s Youthbuild, a program that works to make young adults without diplomas more scholarly or employable.

“That set me on the right path,” he said. “That flipped my life around.”

This week, days before the first graduation ceremony of his life, Granbois was filling out applications to grad schools and writing essays about why he should be accepted. He’s looking at the University of Minnesota and a couple schools out west, avoiding anything to the east because there are just too many people out there.

A few years from now, once he’s earned another diploma, he said he’d like to come back and teach at BSU, a place he said scared him when he arrived.

He said he’s feeling a different kind of nervous to graduate.

Local college graduations

Here’s a list of graduation ceremonies for local colleges and universities planned for the next few weeks:

• BSU will graduate more than 1,000 students Friday at 2 p.m. at the Sanford Center.
• Northwest Technical College will graduate nearly 350 students Friday at 7 p.m. at the Sanford Center.
• Oak Hills Christian College will graduate 26 of its own and three from Mokahum Ministry in Cass Lake on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Evangelical Free Church in Bemidji.
• Leech Lake Tribal College and Red Lake Nation College will hold their ceremonies May 13 at 5 p.m. at Northern Lights Casino in Walker. About 28 LLTC students and about 22 RLNC are eligible.