Sam Wright did not take a typical path to James Madison College. He dropped out of high school, earned his GED while working full time and spent nearly two decades in the telecommunications industry before ever setting foot in a college classroom.
What came next surprised even him.
Wright will graduate from MSU this May with a degree in International Relations, a 4.0 GPA and a full scholarship to Michigan State University College of Law. He has been selected as the college’s spring 2026 student commencement speaker.
“I couldn’t imagine this,” Wright said. “Not when I was 18, not when I was 25, not six months ago.”
Wright grew up in Grant, Michigan, a small town north of Grand Rapids. His mother passed away when he was in third grade, and he switched schools seven times before dropping out. College was never discussed at home.
He went to work for a local tower company, eventually moving to the West Coast with his now-wife and rising to director of the tower division at a telecommunications construction firm he helped grow from two employees to 150. He had a strong salary and visits to 30 countries under his belt.
“It felt a lot like success,” Wright said, “but I never cared about any of that stuff.”
After Wright and his wife adopted their daughter and decided to move back to Michigan to be closer to family, his wife encouraged him to go to school. Coming from a family where higher education hadn’t been prioritized or accessible, he saw the opportunity as bigger than himself. He also didn’t want his daughter to grow up thinking education was optional just because he had gotten by without it.
“I really wanted to change that generational pattern in my family,” he explained. Since returning to school, he’s already seen that impact ripple outward, with a nephew and a niece also choosing to pursue further education.
Wright enrolled at Grand Rapids Community College, where he had taken a handful of classes years earlier, using the Michigan Reconnect scholarship. He began on a teaching pathway but switched to international relations after realizing the program only offered a K-3 track. The new major sat at the intersection of two things he cared about: a love of travel and an interest in politics.
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After earning his associate degree, Wright applied to Michigan State, not entirely sure he would get in. He chose MSU, in part because he had been a devoted Spartan fan for years (including an MSU tattoo on his wrist that long predates his enrollment).
Arriving at JMC as a transfer student was initially overwhelming. Wright commutes two and a half hours round trip from Grand Rapids, and on his first day, he remembers looking around, thinking he was surrounded exclusively by student body presidents and valedictorians.
“I was just like, what am I doing here?” he said.
While the initial transition to JMC’s academic expectations was steep, Wright, 44, credits his age and life experience for helping him push through it. As someone with a family and a career behind him, he said he approaches the work differently than he would have at 20.
“I’m here for a very specific reason,” he said. “This is a long period of the highest wage-earning years of my life that I’m not working, and my wife is working full time. I’m going to do the best that I can.”
He earned a 4.0 his first semester at JMC and has maintained it since. His research has gravitated toward foreign disinformation campaigns and the role of AI in amplifying them, a topic he is exploring in an independent research project with Assist. Dean Jeff Judge. He also participated in the International Relations in Brussels education abroad program last summer.
Wright pointed to the close-knit environment at JMC as something that shaped his experience. Prof. Myunghee Lee, with whom Wright has taken three classes, will introduce him at commencement. Prof. Robert Brathwaite, who was part of his Brussels program, connected him with people who could offer perspective on his next steps. He recalled Dean Judge connecting him with a JMC alumnus and prominent attorney who spent 45 minutes on the phone, offering advice and encouragement.
After graduation, Wright will attend Michigan State University College of Law on a full scholarship. He is interested in immigration law, criminal defense and addressing legal deserts in rural communities, though he said he wants to keep his options open.
Wright said his biggest challenge in returning to school was not the coursework or the adjustment to campus life. It was his own doubt.
“Just my doubts about being smart enough,” he said. “You can let those things really stop you from doing things that you’re capable of.”
He is on track to graduate from JMC with a 4.0 GPA.