The greatest joy I associate with my work as the head servant for the MSU Alumni Association is the many opportunities I have to get to know our students.

We may exalt the more familiar names who paint Spartan pride on the front pages of our sports sections. But the true essence of what Michigan State University is all about are the other 46,000 seekers; Kids who come here to find a passion, to find themselves and to become Spartans in the process.

If you are part of this year’s graduating class, you are about to turn a page in your personal Spartan Saga. Some of you will return to The Banks of the Red Cedar to further fill your brain with MSU wisdom. But the vast majority will launch into a world that desperately needs you.

A funny thing happens if you fully commit yourself to the Spartan ethic.

You literally absorb the unstoppable power of 500,000 other Spartans who are out there living Spartan lives and are changing the world in the process.

Spartans populate thousands cities and towns across this great country and hundreds of MSU outposts around the globe. And I can tell you if you are a true Spartan, your power will be felt, wherever you decide to express it.

It happens wherever there is need, and a courageous person in Green and White stands up to help.

It happens wherever there is hurt, and a Spartan who has known pain is there with comfort.

It happens wherever a there is a dream and a Spartan challenges us all to help make it come true.

As human beings we know fear, suffering, loss and loneliness, but as Spartans, we are part of so very few who refuse to let that define who we are.

Spartans may have been hurt, yet we are determined to heal. Spartans may have known emptiness, but we seek experiences and role models to fill it.

Spartans are imperfect. We have bad days. We can be angry, sad, and feel like we’re not making enough progress. We stumble along the way. And because of our single minded devotion to what we think is right, not everyone will follow us.

That’s what makes us human.

But because we are Spartans, we are committed to the belief that life isn’t about how many times you fall. It’s about how many times you can get back up.

It’s the knowledge that finding true success, true happiness, true love and sustaining relationships requires courage, tenacity and being open to it, even if it includes setbacks and heartbreak.

At the center of your Spartan being, you realize that the only way we can really transform the world, is by transforming ourselves.

And model the behavior for others.

This is what it means when you make the commitment to become a Spartan. It’s why all of us in the MSU Alumni Association will always have your back. We will catch you when you fall, hug you when you hurt, and throw you onto our shoulders to cheer your inevitable success.

We come from many races and many nations. But we all running the human race and OUR nation is the Spartan Nation.

Our specialty is winning. We are never beaten. And we WILL always win.

We are one. We are Spartans!

Now you’ve heard it. Go out and live it.

Listen to an audio version of this message.

By Guest Blogger Don Kowalewski

We've all heard that old saying, "when life takes away your paint brush, make lemonade." Isn't that an old saying? Or is it, "when life takes away your paint, make art with your iPhone." Sometimes it's hard to remember old sayings because they're based on old traditions and outdated bits of wisdom, and sometimes they just don't make sense in our modern world. Go ahead ...explain "by hook or by crook."

And sometimes, old approaches to traditional problems might not make as much sense as they once did either. 

The Michigan State University Alumni community is a beautiful tapestry, to say the least, and Oliver Aguilar '92 is as colorful and vibrant as they make 'em. Lucky for Oliver, he immigrated to the United States from the Philippines at age six, so some of our old sayings missed him. So, too, did the idea that his superhero and sports star posters were supposed to be haphazardly taped and placed around his room without rhyme or reason. He painted his room plain white, then utilized his colorful action figures, rich with Superman's reds and blues, to bring his bedroom to life. Green Lantern wasn't merely a toy, it was the perfect superhero to help his shag green carpeting make a statement. 

He was twelve.

Twelve year olds aren't supposed to want to transform their bedrooms into a "personal space", nor are they supposed to invent their own personal style.

Middle school led into high-school, and high-school led into college and Michigan State University. Once there, because 18-year-old freshman aren't supposed to have their own style, he set a course at MSU to major in accounting and become an accountant - definitely not his style. With his final year at State winding down, he changed his major to Interior Design, took an extra year, and listened to his inner passion.

He was twenty-three.

As he turned his tassel as MSU, he hit the books again and earned a second degree, this time in Architecture from Lawrence Technological University, and got a job as an architect. 

Years went by and Oliver made a great living working for some of the top architectural and interior design firms in Michigan which eventually led him to Chicago and work at that city's top firms. Oliver's talent allowed him to thrive at two of the top-5 design companies in the world. His work reflected his personal style and eye for art, and life was good. Along the way, true to his style, he transformed his home in Michigan into his personal art gallery. And his loft apartment in Chicago, when you walk in, makes you wonder how in the world the rest of us can't figure out how to make our living spaces look so breathtaking.

Then came 2008 and someone took away his paint brush and paints, and Oliver found himself, like so many, without a job.

He was forty. 

This is where Oliver mixed the old ways with the new ways and created his own path. In the spirit of the old ways, he dusted off his resume, picked up the classified ads, and started to look for a job. In 2008, however, there weren't any jobs. So with his sudden abundance of free-time, Oliver began to make art. 

Armed with only his iPhone and a camera, he began collecting images that reflected the moods and struggles among his Chicago and Detroit friends who could not find work. He called his project "False Promises"  and dedicated it to the many Americans struggling with major decisions and facing choices testing their humanity while trying to get their lives back on track. His photos so perfectly captured the spirit of our depressed economy, he was encouraged to enter one of his photos into the Detroit Scarab Club's photo competition and was selected for the exhibition. From there he appeared on TV to talk about the project and was then invited to speak at the DIA and display more pieces from his collection. From there, his work traveled to many exhibits around Detroit and Chicago, and eventually to the second annual ArtPrize, a Grand Rapids, Michigan celebration of art that attracts artists from all over the world.  

His resume wasn't working, but Oliver was working harder, and with more passion, than ever. He was going to make it and come out on top by hook or by crook.

In the new economy, and in Oliver's new reality, a new approach was necessary. Sitting in the comfort of a cubicle at his downtown Chicago architectural firm, if the economic downturn hadn't happened, he might still be sitting there and not making art. And he most certainly wouldn't be appearing as a contestant this Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST on HGTV's The White Room Challenge. His brilliant sense of style and art will come full circle where he heads back to a single, uninspired room with white walls and he'll compete against three other contestants to transform a simple, white room into something amazing. Maybe the theme will be be superheros. Not that it matters because when Oliver's in a room, he is the superhero. 

This Tuesday, Oliver will have the opportunity to inspire many and show a nationwide television audience what can be done when a Spartan reaches beyond the tried, the  true, and the traditional. Here is an extraordinary MSU alum who can teach us all that old sayings can give way to new sayings and all of us hold within our minds new ways of achieving great things.

"If you follow your heart, life is a work of art."  -Demi Lovato

Here's our three part series on Writing For Social Media. MSUAA Executice Director, Scott Westerman, discusses three social media strategies, shares the three keys to creating compelling content, and goes into detail on how to write effective posts on Twitter and Facebook.

STRATEGY: Are you a broadcaster, an interactor or an engager? We’ll evaluate the upsides and downsides of each approach.

TWITTER: How do we incorporate Twitter handles in a tweet? What’s the best way to include a hot link? And what journalistic fundamental is the secret to effective Twitter messaging? 

FACEBOOK: How many characters should be in a good Facebook post? What is the value of tagging? And how many Facebook friends do you need?

Michigan State University Spartans head football coach Mark Dantonio and his wife Becky invite female fans, 18 and older, to attend the Spartan Football Women's Clinic each spring. The 2012 event was held on Saturday April 14 at the Duffy Daugherty Football Complex.

Sustainability ambassador, HGTV star and Traverse City native Carter Oosterhouse keynoted our 2012 Kaleidoscope Day for Women.