That was one of several highlights at Thursday night’s 38th annual American Indian Student Awards Recognition Banquet, where BSU 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 BSU 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, BSU 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 BSU. 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.