Michigan State’s Independent Voice
GRADUATION EDITION 2024
SENIORS GRADUATING EARLY REFLECT ON ‘MISSING OUT’ By Ridhima Kodali rkodali@statenews.com As the tassels turn and Michigan State University’s Breslin Center is flooded with emerald green gowns, the commencement ceremony marks the end of college’s four memorable years. For many graduating seniors, however, this experience is wrapped up only in three. Nutritional sciences senior Mithra Aroul is one student who graduated early. Aroul made this decision to save money, spend time with her family and dog, travel the world and focus on applying to Physician Assistant school during a gap year. “We’ve been in school for our whole lives,” Aroul said. “A good 15 to 16 years, and I just wanted to take some time off just to do some things that I’m passionate about because burnout is really real, especially in the healthcare field.” Aroul said she knew she wanted to “capitalize” on the college credits she earned during high school when her journey at MSU started. However, she still had a heavy
workload throughout her three years, including summers packed with classes. “I felt like I was doing school all the time,” Aroul said. “I haven’t really gotten a proper break. I didn’t realize how much time had passed, and it’s just been super, ‘go, go, go.’” Biology senior Josh Berman, who applied to MSU’s Osteopathic Medical Scholars 3+4, a program that exposes students to clinical skills early in their college career, during the first semester of his second year, said graduating early was the “right transition” and what he “needed” for his life. Berman wanted to go to medical school as soon as he could, and having direct admission offered him a myriad of resources, mentorship and opportunities. “It just feels very fast, very quick,” Berman said. “”When I was 16 (during) COVID, I wasn’t doing much in school. Freshman year, when I was 18, I just felt like I was getting right back into the swing of things, and then one year later, I’m all of a sudden graduating next year.”
N EWS
Trustee Denno asked for favors from administrators For months, a trustee requested personal favors from MSU’s top administrators. The new president says that stops under him. PAGE 4
LIFE
Double Spartans decide MSU for both degrees Illustration by Zachary Balcoff.
When Berman came to MSU, it was difficult for him to adjust to a new environment because he “wasn’t doing much” through the pandemic and school. While he did consider a gap year before medical school, he said he felt the extra time was something he didn’t need. “Everyone’s needs are a little bit different,” Berman said. “For me, I realized that the grass is
greener on the other side. Time is always going to move on.” Aroul said the experience of graduating early varies for everyone and that she gained valuable insights from the conversations that she had with several upperclassmen as a freshman and her parents about graduating early.
There are over 7,200 students enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs, some of these students having the opportunity of attending MSU for both their undergraduate and graduate degrees, becoming “double Spartans.” PAGE 5
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
Department of Natural Resources stocks Red Cedar River with over 3,000 trout By Emilio Perez Ibarguen eibarguen@statenews.com
DNR releases fish from the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery into the Red Cedar River on April 12, 2024. Photos by Jonah Brown.
T U ES DAY, A P RI L 16, 2024
@THESNEWS
A handful of students and curious onlookers gathered on the Beal Street bridge Friday afternoon to watch as a crew from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, stocked the Red Cedar River with 3,300 steelhead trout on April 12. Unloading from a specialized fish stocking vehicle, DNR employees used slides and buckets to drop the trout over the side of the bridge and into
STAT E N EWS.COM
the river. Friday’s drop is only one small part of the DNR’s spring-long process of stocking rivers and lakes across the state of Michigan with various species of fish. From mid-March to early June, around 20 million fish are stocked using a fleet of specialized fish stocking vehicles that travel around the state. Alexa Curtis, one of the DNR employees who was dumping trout into the Red Cedar, said the yearold fish would spend a short period
of time in the river before swimming downstream to Lake Michigan. She added that the fish released today were raised at the Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery in Mattawan. “They will return to this area when they’re adults, they’ll try to spawn up here, and then it’s for people to catch them from here,” Curtis said. People interested in keeping tabs on where and when fish are being stocked can visit this link on the Michigan DNR’s website.