While the big-ticket goals, like a $60-million expansion for the Broad College of Business and a new research center in Grand Rapids, are what grab headlines, the impact of this money is felt on a far more personal scale for many Spartans. The STARR Charitable Foundation Scholarship, a full-ride scholarship available to residents of Wyoming and the Upper Peninsula, is included in the Empower Extraordinary donation totals. The scholarship, funded by an anonymous MSU alumnus from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has funded 56 students' college experiences since the 2014-2015 year.

Neuroscience senior Kennedy Thatch, a native of Lander, Wyoming, is a recipient of the scholarship. At a dinner for STARR scholars at Brody Square, she said the scholarship drew her to East Lansing and away from the University of Wyoming, where she likely would've attended otherwise.

"Michigan State has a huge study abroad program that the University of Wyoming really doesn't even touch," Thatch said. "I've gotten to study abroad and done a couple of other international fellowships that wouldn't have even crossed my mind had I not been here." 

Senior finance major Quin Wetzel, another Wyoming STARR recipient, said he never would've moved across the country to attend school if it hadn't been for this "amazing opportunity." He thinks as public universities have seen a drop in state funding in recent years, campaigns like Empower Extraordinary are what keep schools like MSU strong.

"(Fundraising) has become more and more of a full funding source for all students across campus, and that's in terms of tuition dollars and faculty support as well as infrastructure," Wetzel said. "Whether or not you're directly a scholarship student, private philanthropy has a huge impact on every student at this university." 

To Bob Groves, MSU vice president for university advancement, said this impact is felt not only by the students who will be on campus long enough to benefit from construction projects and research opportunities. He said graduates also benefit, as they will see the value of their degrees increase as MSU's funding improves.

"Once you get a degree from a university, you're kind of branded. You're connected to that university for the rest of your life," Groves said. "If the university goes downhill, if its quality becomes less, your degree depreciates. ... Folks' impression of that university at that time is what's going to determine the value of your degree, whenever you got it." 

The STARR donor is just one of over 98,200 alumni who have contributed to the campaign, but not all of these alumni donors are throwing down the funds for multiple full-ride scholarships every year. Bob Thomas of MSU's University Advancement department said while eight-figure donations allow for major projects like the business college pavilion, the goal wouldn't have been achieved without a "broad base of support" including smaller donors as well.

"All levels can contribute and see their part in this campaign," Director of Advancement Marketing and Communications Stephanie Motschenbacher said. "That's how it's succeeded." 

Motschenbacher added that Greenline, MSU's fundraising call center, has been an effective tool for reaching out and targeting those "small" donations of $500 to $1000.

Thatch, a former Greenline employee, has the dual perspective of both benefiting from donors and pursuing them. This has given her an increased appreciation for the effects of Empower Extraordinary and fundraising in general, which has pushed her to look for ways to turn her "blessing" into ways to help others. She is trying to secure funding to start an after-school dance program within Lansing Public Schools that would allow participants to receive a scholarship to MSU upon graduating high school.

"I feel like Michigan State in general does an incredible job of making each and every one of us feel like we can individually change the world," Thatch said. "Not everybody really wants to give their money to the school because they don't really understand the impact it can truly make and being on the other end of that is a pretty incredible blessing." 

Groves doesn't think Thatch's desire to pay it forward is unique; he thinks it's the point of the work he's been doing at MSU since 2009. To him, fundraising is about helping donors and recipients "make a difference in the world" on a larger scale than just constructing fancy new buildings.

"The building itself isn't the secret sauce, but we all want to be in an environment that's conducive to doing great study and great collaboration," Groves said. "If we don't do great education, the building won't matter."