Choosing a college is a huge part of someone's life. It is a place that you spend four years and grow into the adult that you will be for the rest of your life. The people, the places, the experiences, the classes and the professors are the things that make you who you are and who you will be. Most people owe their success and accomplishments to their university and those who helped them get there. This is why alumni are so willing to help out students today. They became successful because of alumni who helped them and the university and so they want to do the same for current students and recent graduates.

Over spring break, I had the opportunity to go to Los Angeles with a group from Michigan State and meet with alumni. We met with people such as Bill and Carol Mechanic, Peter Stougaard, Jack Epps, alumni from the company mOcean, and other alumni throughout the LA area. Each alumnus we met with was so excited to share their knowledge, their stories, and were genuinely excited to speak with our group.

A common theme that I noticed was that they all talked about how it was really Michigan State and being from the midwest that made them successful. MSU is such a well-known university that everywhere each of those alumni went, people trusted the education they got. Additionally, each alumni mentioned how being from the midwest has the connotation of a hard-working, go-getter attitude, which is something that all employers look for. Each alumnus mentioned this to our group in some way and emphasized the importance of being hard-working, but also just being a Spartan.

Another thing I noticed was that each alumnus in LA is intertwined in some aspect. They all know each other and are all willing to collaborate and help each other out in some way. Each of them mentioned another person that we would meet or did meet on the trip and talked about their work together and how it helped to propel their career forward. They even mentioned past professors that they worked with who helped them. At our alumni night, so many of them knew each other and worked together to give us advice for our future careers and potential moves to LA.

It was so amazing to see so many alumni come together throughout the week and provide us with such knowledge and advice. It really goes to show how much pride Spartans have for not only the university but the students who come from it. Just by having gone to the same school, even though at different times, the alumni could not be more happy to speak with us and to help us out. Everyone was so proud of being a spartan and the genuinely cared about each of us. This past week made me so proud to be a Spartan and I know that with the midwest hard work that I have been taught here and with the help of other proud Spartans, that I will be as successful as the ones we met with. Spartan's will.