 Bemidji State University is welcoming students back to campus for the spring semester with their annual Spring Day of Welcome. The ceremony was held at the American Indian Resource Center on campus. Everyone was welcomed to attend. The event started with a pipe ceremony and honor song and then there was a welcome speech as well. The afternoon was topped off with a pot roast feast. The Spring Day of Welcome is meant to reiterate to students that they always have support from faculty. Our biggest message that we conveyed to students today was just that you're starting off with a brand new GPA for this semester and this semester's what you make it. If you put a lot of hard work into it, you're going to have success. If you work your planner every week like you're supposed to be doing, if you spend the amount of time studying that you're supposed to be doing, you're going to do great. And we've really focused on American Indian students in the last couple of years and increased our enrollment by quite a bit. This is actually our largest class of American Indian freshmen in the school's history. So the things have been working. BSE will be hosting other Spring Welcome Back activities throughout the week. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.