Bridging a Future
Pam says it’s all about giving back to the place that helped make her who she is.
July 22, 2014
“Anybody who identifies with being a Spartan and feels their years and experience at MSU contributed to their life and successes, in any way, should consider giving back.”
Like gymnasts build themselves into bridges as they work their way to back handsprings, former gymnastics champion and current marketing expert Pamela (Pam) Steckroat Treadway (’78, Social Science; ’82, Business) has built a different kind of bridge through her generous gifts to Michigan State University.
For the College of Social Science, the bridge is strong: a $900,000 charitable bequest to create an endowed internship fund to match promising Economics students with meaningful internships that can launch them into the professional world.
Pam’s desire to help future Spartans led her to create three additional endowed funds as well, one for student-athlete support services, one to support Women’s Gymnastics and an endowed scholarship targeted toward student-athletes who want to pursue MBAs. She named MSU as a beneficiary of her retirement accounts, which is an easy process for anyone with such assets who wishes to remember MSU in their estate plans. In total, her future gifts will add up to $3.75 million.
Pam says it’s all about giving back to the place that helped make her who she is.
“MSU provided me with a great foundation to build a successful career,” she says. “It was natural for me to give back to MSU and specifically to the areas that meant something to me and really formed who I am in my career, in my life and in my success. I feel like I am home when I am here.”
Pam transferred as a junior to Michigan State in 1976 to continue competing at the collegiate-level as a gymnast. She made MSU proud by becoming the only two-time All-American champion in MSU’s gymnastics history.
She earned a degree in Economics and then completed her MBA. She found that employers looked to MSU as a hotbed for recruiting and that her sports background gave her an edge. She quickly landed a job with Procter & Gamble where she began a marketing and brand management career. Today, she is a successful and dynamic marketing executive, venturing in myriad areas from research and product development to social media marketing as a managing director of Moon & Stars Consulting.
She looks back fondly on her experiences at MSU, especially as an Economics undergrad. “The caliber of the professors, the classes and course content were stellar,” she recalls. For her, they were building blocks to later success, providing immense value and future opportunity.
“Making the decision to give financially, I believe, is a very personal matter,” she says. “Anybody who identifies with being a Spartan and feels their years and experience at MSU contributed to their life and successes, in any way, should consider giving back.”
She adds: “Any additional success I achieve now is for MSU. It feels so good to know I am working for the students at Michigan State. I’m working to make Michigan State better. And that drives me so much more than if it were just for me.”
Pam hasn’t finished building bridges at MSU. She and her husband Dean Treadway traveled back to campus this fall for Homecoming and they are active Spartan advocates in their home state of California.
“Wherever I go, Spartan connections seem to be the driving force now. I see people on Linkedin and the first thing I look for is where they went to school,” Pam says. “Was it Michigan State? There’s this strong, strong connection. There’s this bond like family.”
For more information on making MSU part of your estate plans, contact the Office of Gift Planning at (517) 884-1000 or visit giftplanning.msu.edu.
Kyle Simon (’13, College of Arts and Letters) contributed to this article.
