Texas A&M’s Core Values — Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Loyalty and Selfless Service — are involved in almost all aspects of campus life. One Aggie law student, Jeff Risinger, displayed his selflessness by participating in live liver donation — a story he hopes inspires others to do the same. 

Risinger has been a lifelong Aggie, attending Texas A&M at Texarkana to earn his bachelor’s degree in business and psychology. He then launched into a career in human resources and now attends A&M’s law school. 

Risinger first became interested in the idea of live organ donation during his search to relieve pain in his heel. As he searched online for possible causes, an advertisement asking people to consider being a living organ donor caught his eye. 

“I didn’t know you could do that while you were alive,” Risinger said. “ … I didn’t click on it the first time, but eventually after the second or third time, I saw, ‘learn more about that.’ So I clicked through it and read about what they did in Pittsburgh.” 

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, or UPMC, was encouraging others to donate. Risinger felt called to take the trip and fulfill what he believed was a testament of Selfless Service.

“I had been blessed with really good health and the Aggie Core Values,” Risinger said. “And that whole Selfless Service thing kept popping up, and I decided to go to Pittsburgh and be evaluated to be a living liver donor.”

After days of testing, Risinger was determined healthy enough to be a liver donor. He received the call that UPMC had found a match in December 2022: Jeff Hull, a resident of Pennsylvania who had been recently diagnosed with cholangitis — a serious inflammation of bile ducts in the liver — who was hospitalized shortly afterward, and in dire need of a liver transplant. The process moved quickly afterward, and the surgery was scheduled for the next January.

“I just went in [to the donor process] anonymous to begin with,” Risinger said. “I was probably here in ICU for a couple days, and I’ve been on the regular transplant floor for a day or two recovering.”

Josh Hull — Jeff’s son, a retired Penn State and NFL player and living donor himself — paced anxiously outside of Risinger’s hospital room door. Josh eventually asked to speak to Rinsinger, which is when they made the connection that Risinger had been the donor for Josh’s father. 

“I met his son, and then the next day Jeff and his wife, Sue, came by and that’s when I met them for the first time,” Risinger said. “It was immediately like, you’re talking to a family member. And I don’t know if that was because of the donation or just the personalities involved, but we just immediately felt like we were a part of their family.”

Risinger stays in contact with the Hulls and often receives messages from Jeff expressing his continued gratitude. The transplant was successful, and Jeff continues to update Risinger on his life with a healthy liver. 

“On his very first hunting trip after the transplant with his grandkids, he found this stick in the woods, and he picked it up and took it home with him,” Risinger said. “And it’s about five feet long, and he carved it into a hiking stick and sent it to me. … His son sent me an autographed football because they both played at Penn State and just seeing their life and knowing that you’re a part of what’s happening positively in their life now is the most rewarding part.”

While he worried that sharing his experience would detract from the value of Selfless Service that he holds so dear, Risinger continues spreading awareness about live organ donation. 

“It dawned on me that the purpose in telling this story is to give other people a chance to do this if they can, that there could be other lives that are saved,” Risinger said. “It’s not about what I did unless my experience motivates somebody else. There’s places all around College Station that people can go and be a part of something like this, and I think that’s the best part of telling this story. If it finds one more person to become a living liver donor, then it’s worth telling.”

Risinger credits a lot of his personal growth and development to his time spent in Aggieland and his experiences with other Aggies. Though other universities have core values, Risinger said the ones at A&M truly shape the interactions and activities of all students. These values — especially Selfless Service — perfectly encompass the importance of what it means to be a good person and an Aggie. 

“No matter where you go, you can find Aggies,” Risinger said. “And when you find them, you find those Core Values.”