Tony Nuckolls, MSU alumnus and vice president of training and development at Quicken Loans, accompanied Thomas, also an MSU alumnus, to the Erickson Hall Kiva stage to speak about the importance of networking to personal success.

“I would really recommend that students cry out to alumni, faculty and staff,” Thomas said. “I believe that with the right support of human resources and financial support, any student has the ability to do well.”

African American and Latino male graduation rates have dropped to about 32 percent in the past six years, according to Thomas.

“Being in Detroit, my biological father wasn’t in my life, and then I dropped out of high school,” he said. “It took 12 years for me to get an undergraduate degree, but I did it.”

“Don’t quit; just keep going,” is what economics senior Walter Bivens said he stresses to everyone attending MSU Advantage Program events.

The MSU Advantage Program includes members who are economically strict, who “grew up on the wrong side of life’s tracks,” those with depression issues and even those who excel in academics, according to Bivens.

“We’re looking to save all students, from the 4.0 student to the student who’s on academic probation, to make sure they graduate and stay the course,” Bivens said.

He said he hopes Nuckolls will be a good resource to the students in attendance.

Chemistry freshman Briayna Miles joined the MSU Advantage Program soon after she enrolled at MSU.

“It’s a message for anybody in college that you can relate to,” Miles said. “I would suggest the (MSU) Advantage Program to everybody and anybody.”

Miles said she’s seen Thomas speak before, and that he comes bearing a different tool to “be great” each time he speaks to an audience.

“(The MSU Advantage Program) allowed me to connect with people on a family basis and have moral and academic support in a comfortable environment,” Miles said.

Founded by Thomas in 2004, the MSU Advantage Program’s mission is to open students’ eyes to what success means, and how “you really have to want it as badly as you want to breathe in order to achieve it,” according to Bivens.

“It’s not enough just to be separated. You have to separate yourselves from those who are already separated,” Bivens said. “You need to separate from the greats to be the great.”