{"id":32316,"date":"2018-05-08T08:16:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T13:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=32316"},"modified":"2018-05-08T08:16:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T13:16:08","slug":"lakeland-ptv-news-bsu-class-of-2018-celebrates-on-graduation-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2018\/05\/08\/lakeland-ptv-news-bsu-class-of-2018-celebrates-on-graduation-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland PTV News: BSU Class Of 2018 Celebrates On Graduation Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ratio ratio-16x9 clearfix my-4\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BSU Class Of 2018 Celebrates On Graduation Day\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mIvkpRJhtlk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>After years of hard work, more than 1,100 students can officially change their title to Bemidji State University graduate.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll probably miss being on the lake the most. Honestly, I love being outside, and it&rsquo;s just an absolutely beautiful campus,&rdquo; says new BSU graduate Lindsay Iverson.<\/p>\n<p>Many have dreamed of the day when they would finally get to walk across the stage with their degree in hand. For some graduates, this moment represents a journey of hard work and perseverance.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I honestly flunked out of school twice before going back to Northwest Technical College, and then after I succeeded there I went back to BSU,&rdquo; says Naomi Johnson, another BSU graduate.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Five or six years ago, I didn&rsquo;t see myself in college at all. I&rsquo;m originally from Philadelphia, PA, and when I moved up here I started working and I was like, &lsquo;you know what, why not take a shot at education and see what it can do for me,&rdquo; says Kenneth Bentley III, another graduate.<\/p>\n<p>BSU is known for diversity, and the class of 2018 is no different. This year, there were 53 American Indian graduates, the most in the University&rsquo;s history. There were also 64 master&rsquo;s degree recipients and 39 veteran graduates.&nbsp;There were also 338 students who graduated with honors, not to mention a number of international students.<\/p>\n<p>Spriha Praden, a BSU graduate from Nepal, says, &ldquo;The reason that I came here is because it feels like home. I wasn&rsquo;t here before, but with all the pictures and there are some other Nepali students and because of what they said, I really feel at home.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Many of the graduates say they&rsquo;re excited to get started in their career.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to being in the data science field and seeing what it has to offer,&rdquo; says Praden.<\/p>\n<p>When asked what she&rsquo;s looking forward to, Iverson says, &ldquo;Not going to class, mostly, and not having to worry about taking tests. I&rsquo;m excited to actually get out there and start teaching.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Some will be furthering their education, like Johnson, who received a full ride to the Medical College of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had so much support and so many great people at BSU. I would&rsquo;ve done okay by myself, but everybody here makes the difference,&rdquo; says Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Bentley III says he&rsquo;s looking forward to spending time with family, in particular his son. &ldquo;This is probably the best four-year investment that possibly I&rsquo;ve ever made, and I thank BSU a lot for all the things they&rsquo;ve done for me.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Northwest Technical College also had their graduation today. This year, more than 200 students earned degrees from NTC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After years of hard work, more than 1,100 students can officially change their title to Bemidji State University graduate. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll probably miss being on the lake the most. Honestly, I love being outside, and it&rsquo;s just an absolutely beautiful campus,&rdquo; says new BSU graduate Lindsay Iverson. Many have dreamed of the day when they would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32317,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32316\/revisions\/32317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}