A Dream Come True
by Sandy Gholston, March 25, 2008
Becoming Ferris State University's new director of the Multicultural Student Services Office has, in many ways, turned out to be akin to a dream come true for Matt Chaney.
The long journey to a leadership role in Multicultural Student Services has been a series of worthwhile lessons for Chaney about the virtues of patience, hard work, education and a passion for his alma mater. The Flint native, who has a degree in public relations/marketing, has progressed quite a way from where he started when he first arrived at Ferris in 1987. In two decades since Chaney first came to Big Rapids and Ferris, he has gone from undergraduate student, to College Day Coordinator in the former Office of Minority Student Affairs, to working in the office of enrollment, to assistant director of that same office to his current post: Director of the Office of Multicultural Student Services.
Returning to his roots, in the Office of Multicultural Student Services (formerly the Office of Minority Student Affairs), has proven itself quite the sweet experience for Chaney.
"It was like a homecoming for me to be able to come back to the office and the place where it all started for me here at Ferris," said Chaney, who not only credits previous experience in the office, but also time he worked in enrollment for his evolution into more of a well-rounded leader. "I enjoy the time I get to spend with staff and the students who frequent our office. (Becoming director) has been a very rewarding opportunity for me to continue to serve as a mentor to some of the students that we have here on this campus."
The daily interactions with students are part of what has brought Chaney back so many times to Ferris, where he earned his bachelor's degree and his master's degree (Career and Technical Education) from Ferris in 1993 and 2000, respectively. He did not, however, immediately jump into a job at Ferris and actually left for about a year. But, he returned for an opportunity to work in the Office of Minority Student Affairs as its College Day Program Coordinator. He has been here ever since.
Past experiences have helped Chaney shape a vision for where he sees the newly-named Office of Multicultural Student Services headed in the future.
"What I see for the future of this office is for us to become more service oriented to better assist our students who come to us for guidance," said Chaney, who returned to the new Office of Multicultural Student Affairs after the departure of the previous director, Raymond Gant. "I learned a lot from my experience in enrollment and I want to bring some of those experiences to this office and have our staff (members) trained to be able to answer some of the basic questions our students have about financial aid and about scholarships. We want to be able to better help point our students in the right direction.
"We're here to serve our students and we feel like we can continue to get better at serving them and we look forward to doing that."
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