Hagan visited campus Wednesday to address students about donating their organs as part of the Gift of Life University Challenge.

“When you’re told you only have 18 months to live but it’s going to take a couple years to receive the transplant, you start to hope people are going to donate,” Hagan said.

In the more than eight years since his successful transplant, Hagan has become a well-traveled speaker and director of quality improvement for Gift of Life Michigan, an organization dedicated to providing organs and tissues to those in need.

The competition pits several Michigan colleges and universities against one another to generate widespread student fundraising.

The school that raises the most student support will be presented with the Gift of Life Award, which MSU has claimed each of the past four years.

“It’s amazing to see the life stories that are changed through donations,” said Deanna Gray, clinical laboratory sciences senior and president of the Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics Student Association, or BLDSA, which has hosted the event at MSU for the last five years.

BLDSA members will come into classes with flyers next week to muster support for the competition, which ends Feb. 18.

The MSU Red Cross Club will participate in the competition for the first time this year.

Cameron Kielhorn, president of the club, said the nonprofit student organization has seen its membership double in the past year. Kielhorn said events like the speech Wednesday night was evidence of a larger campus presence.

“We’re trying to give more diverse volunteer opportunities,” Kielhorn said. “We’re looking to do more than just blood drives.”

Students wishing to partake in the challenge can sign up at www.giftoflifemichigan.org or turn in forms to the Medical Technology Program office on the third floor of North Kedzie Hall.