You inherit a lot from your parents. Being Spartan Green can also be passed down generation to generation. With a steady increase in international students over the past years, international students are also passing down the MSU Legacy.

I am the eighth person in my family to attend MSU, said Warocha Aungsumalin, a second generation Spartan from Thailand who recently received her MBA in logistics and supply chain management.

Regarding her feelings about being an international legacy student, Aungsumalin said, I had heard about MSU since I was very, very young and never thought Id get to see it myself. It has been life-changing, and I really like it here.

This legacy students parents couldnt have been happier about the occasion, as both are former Spartans themselves. Her father, Saroj Aungsumalin, earned his Ph.D. in agricultural economics in 1982 and her mother, Wipada (Mokkhavesa) Aungsumalin, graduated in 1977 with an M.A. in education.

Returning to campus to watch his daughter graduate, MSU Alumni Club of Thailand President Saroj Aungsumalin said, We are very glad to return to our alma mater. There are many new colleges, buildings, and facilities that will help recruit outstanding students to MSU, but the atmosphere is still the same.

"I believe we are at a new stage of engagement opportunity with our international alumni," said Stella Cash, interim executive director of the MSU Alumni Association. "With the position created through the partnership between International Studies and Programs and the MSU Alumni Association, we are better equipped than we have ever been to include international alumni in our activities here on campus and around the world.

They will play an increasingly important role in our strategic planning as we continue to grow as a global university," she said.

MSU saw a record-high number of international students this past academic year, as noted in the Institute for International Educations Open Doors report. In the report, MSU was in the top ten of public universities with 4,509 international students from more than 130 countries.

And the number is expected to increase even more when the next cohort of international students arrives for orientation in the middle of August.

For more information on international student opportunities at MSU, visit www.isp.msu.edu (http://www.isp.msu.edu/student).

For more information on the MSU Legacy program, or to enroll your child, visit MSUalum.com (http://www.msualum.com/legacy).