Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Manhattan Area Technical College on the GMCF Community Hour Episode - 190
We explore the dynamic partnership between MATC and GMCF, focusing on workforce development and community engagement. Jim Jeanette shares insights into how local philanthropy creates a ripple effect that lifts everyone.
• Conversations around the role of philanthropy in education
• The impact of MATC and GMCF collaboration in workforce training
• Stories of individuals benefiting from local scholarships and support
• Emphasis on giving, regardless of the size of contributions
Your support matters! Reach out and find out how you can contribute to local initiatives that spark change.
Philanthropy Today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on NewsRadio KMAN. Jim Jeanette is our guest in this segment of the GMCF Community Hour. Jim is president of MATC and the chief executive officer. Jim, it's always a great pleasure to have you on the radio, sir. Good morning.
Speaker 2:Good morning. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:I am great and getting better. It's a new March. There's all kinds of things that are going on in March, and March for us here at the GMCF means CFAs and we have our annual meeting and we're going to focus here in our discussion today not so much about what you do at MATC, because I think that, a that's well documented. B if you don't know the great work that's being done at MATC and their recent successes, you got to learn more because it's surely a treasure in our community. But we are thrilled that you are involved as MATC, as one of our keynote sponsors of the CFAs, and you know that's a big thing for us here and I think it shows that MATC has a vested interest in the community.
Speaker 2:Well, I sure hope so. You know, the Community Foundation has been a tremendous supporter of our efforts and in turn we want to support the GMCF. You know, when I was hired for this job, I came up before I actually was the president hired for this job. I came up before I actually was the president. Marla from the GMCF staff was our board chair and hired me and she asked if I could come up and go to the CFAs in the spring of 2015.
Speaker 2:I didn't start as president until July of that year, so I came up and went to it and to say I was blown away is an understatement. You know, it's like walking into the Academy Awards. It was amazing. But what's even more amazing than the event itself is the stories within the event of how GMC has helped so many people, so many organizations, so many groups, and how much buy-in there is by the community of Manhattan and the surrounding area.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things that I you know. Every time I walk out of there and I've got a big role in the event, serving as master of ceremonies and being involved in the production aspect as well I always learn something, and I learn something that is remarkable.
Speaker 2:You know it is cool to see everybody that gets honored and recognized. That is tremendous. But at the same time I think a lot of the people there realize I might not be recognized but I'm involved in some way and it all makes a difference and that's the cool thing.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter if you only get five bucks a year to some cause of GMCF.
Speaker 2:It helps. So it's that old adage no gift is too big, no gift is too small, just give.
Speaker 1:What does it mean to MATC, to be involved in something like the CFAs and the GMCF overall?
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, part of it, they support us. From day one, vern and I had conversations about what we were trying to do here. I have to laugh One of the many conversations I've had with Vern over the years. He looked me in the eye and he said you're not dreaming big enough.
Speaker 1:I came back and told my staff that and they all fainted.
Speaker 2:Our success is due to a lot of things, but part of it is due to the support from the GMCF, the groups who support that organization in various ways various funds and how they've helped us with scholarships, with the new building, with helping raise money for our Wamego Center investments we've been able to make in people. At the same time, many of our students have benefited from the different funds of GMCF from the Fairy Godmothers, the breadbasket, other things because many of our students are needy and we're able to show them here's this resource. Get in touch with these folks, see what they can do to help you. So there's a lot of reciprocal if you will support that we give each other. And it all involves how we turn out workforce for the community, but the community supporting this organization helps us make those things happen.
Speaker 1:You know, we've talked a lot about the child care business initiative and the work that's going there, and that's what you were referring to when you said this new building. What does it mean to you, as president of MATC, to be so intricately involved in this effort?
Speaker 2:It's part of it. I mean, it's workforce. We saw with the impact of COVID of people leaving the workforce to take care of their kids. At the same time, we found out how hard it is to run a child care center, or even in your home during a pandemic. The pandemic just poured fuel on a lot of changes that were going to happen. Anyway, here come the young ladies with the idea for this accelerator project, the support from the chamber, gmcf, the city, and they looked at us and said can you help? Yeah, yeah, this is our role is to help with workforce.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to tell you this morning we signed an agreement, or we're preparing to sign an agreement, with USC 383 so that we can offer those early childhood education classes with their students as part of dual credit and concurrent enrollment, which is a key to the workforce, in addition to mothers and others wanting to learn how to run child care operations. The other new building, in my phrase, is our new Advanced Technology Center, which received significant support through Vernon GMCF from several funds. So again, our mission is workforce education. We keep the town running, you know, hey, some people think K-State and us are in competition. We're not. Their mission is totally different than ours.
Speaker 2:You need both. It's a good thing to have K-State, it's a good thing to have Manhattan Tech, but we're the folks we turn out, the folks who fix your car, your furniture, your air conditioner, your power, or the nurses in all the clinics giving you your shots. We're that part of the workforce. And so here comes the child care need. What can we do to help? And that's our big thing. I told my folks when I got here 10 years ago, unless the topic in conversation is illegal, immoral or unethical you know those are all answers are no. But if it's anything outside of that, the answer is let's talk, let's see if we can figure out how what you need fits into our mission and what can we do.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of aspects about what MATC does, you know, not just for young people, and not even just young people, anybody that's looking to make a career change to improve their economic standpoint, their viability as a member of the community. I mean, I remember when I spoke to one of your commencement ceremonies, there was just a wide range of individuals there with greater backgrounds or a greater span of backgrounds, and it's just remarkable what a cross section of the community that you have in your student body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's you know. And adding the adult ed program here six years ago, which gives us the chance to work with the adult ed students who dropped out of high school, but also open up the door for us to work with people where English is not their native tongue, and we've helped almost 1,200 people learn English and workplace skills. We've helped over about 200 people get their GED. The other night the Via Christi had their Deva, their celebration to raise funds, and we were there and they had three student video testimonials about the help they received in scholarships from Via Christi's foundation. All three students were from Manhattan Tech. Yeah, so we matter, we have a lot of value People recognize us more.
Speaker 2:But it's always a value about how do we help each other, how do we scratch each other's back. So the help from the foundation with the child care accelerator, with our new building, with scholarships for our students, for help through the Wamego Foundation with our Wamego Center All of this is so we can keep doing workforce education to give people good jobs. They're not only employees. They become taxpayers and consumers. Very few of our students come out with very much student debt. They're pretty much debt-free or pretty close. Their consumer buying power is huge and that's something I stress to a lot of employers in the city and the county. My students stay in the area. They're buying houses, trucks, cars, groceries. We like more and more people paying into the tax base and that's one of our talents that we have at MATC.
Speaker 1:If you were to share words of thought with other businesses or individuals that are considering supporting local philanthropy through events like the CFAs or whatever the case may be, what would your message be?
Speaker 2:Please try to support and donate in some way, because it does help. There's a ripple effect. Bobby Kennedy Sr mentioned that in a speech, I think, at KU back in the 60s. The ripple effect we do one good thing, it has a ripple effect to somebody else. And that's something I appreciate about our faculty and staff is they realize that the things we do change somebody's lives. But they get a better job and if I can get somebody to have a good job as a nurse and they help some patient with a healthcare issue and that person's healthy so they can take care of their kids and they can push their kids to get a good education, that ripple effect is huge over the long run with significance. So any I think you know I'm like Vern, bigger gift is better, but any gift helps, anything helps.
Speaker 1:Jim Jeanette is president and CEO of Manhattan Area Technical College. We're thrilled for the work that you are doing in the community and we're even more thrilled for the work you are doing to help support the GMCF and also the CFAs, with MATC as a keynote sponsor to the effort, and we'll look forward to seeing you on the 24th of March. Count on it. All right, we'll be back with Vern in just a couple of moments. We'll have some community updates and a preview of next week's show here on the GMCF Community Hour. We do this every Monday morning at 10 on NewsRadio KMAN.