With the spiraling education system, limited funding and dull and stressed out school officials it is great to know that there are still figures in our city fighting for our educational rights.

These advocates contribute their skills to assist with our flawed system by constantly creating positive pathways that are changing the lives of students in the communities around us, every day, despite the known obstacles. One of those many figures is Jeannie Michelle Bynum, Division Manager of Student Services at the West Allis campus. Charismatic, poise, and compassionate are just a few words to describe Bynum.

She is a huge advocate for quality education, academic equality and simply going the extra mile to get the job done We are only a few weeks into the school year and she is already prepared to lead prospective students into our doors; and to direct current students through the doors of graduation and out on their career paths.

Her brightly lit office is the area of production for Bynum. On a day to day basis she supervises her staff while overseeing the following departments: Financial Aid, Admissions and Registration, Counseling and Advising, Testing Assessment, Academic Support Center, and Student Accommodations. Her primary responsibility is to ensure that each department is meeting the needs of each student that enters the campus. She understands that it is a domino effect and in order to provide quality customer assistance, she must put her best foot forward every day and also meet the needs of her staff. It can be a heavy workload and Jeannie enjoys every minute of it! Being able to serve students and assist them along their college journey is very fulfilling to the Division Manager.

Bynum works closely with Student Life Coordinator, Patrice Jefferies. Every year she helps with the New Student Orientation, welcoming students to the campus that will become their home until they obtain their desired degree. Jefferies also offers her time and skills to hosting events for the school year at the West Campus. This year the West Campus events theme is Year of Professional Etiquette, Leadership & Success. Bynum works hard to assist students in any possible in hopes of helping them succeed.

Not only does Bynum participate in workshops and conferences, such covering topics such as Financial Aid, Student Disabilities and the LGBT population to stay in compliance with a newly diverse student population. Bynum believes that education is significant to all willing to embrace it and it should be provided to everyone. Also those interested should also have the extra help that they need in order to reach their full potential. Bynum makes that possible on a daily basis. Each department that she oversees helps students on every step of their entry, duration and exit of their college career. Admissions and Registration assists with the application process to get students accepted into the college. Financial Aid assists with educational funding needs and the process to obtain those funds. The staff in the Counseling & Advising Department help plan the coursework of students in order to earn the credits required for graduation. Student Accommodations is dedicated to ensuring that students with disabilities have equal access to the opportunity of all MATC programs. And the Assessment department require pre-education placement test to determine which level entering students are at so that they are matched with the correct classes needed for their general studies. All of these divisions work individually and also together in order to make sure they secure the futures of all attending students.

Every semester, with the assistance of staff members, Bynum leads the West Allis Transfer Days Fair event, where up to 30 colleges showcase how they partner in MATC’s pathway process to helping students identify and pursue their career scholastically. She also mentors six Promise students (a program that provides free college education to area high school graduates who meet program eligibility requirements) up until their commencement ceremony.

With the recent closure of ITT Tech, Bynum has been assisting with the transitions of many of the college’s students, offering whatever is needed to support them and help them further their education at MATC. “I am able to greet our students as they enter the college, see them off when they exit the college and assist them in their journey during the process,” stated Bynum.

Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Bynum grew up in a huge family of seven siblings, who were all close knit. Love, honesty, loyalty and dedication bonded her family and Bynum still carries their values and traditions till this day. It is important to her to spend a lot of quality time with her husband and two sons and other extended family. Family is number one is her eyes. That was a value Jeannie’s parents taught her and her siblings and she passed it down to her children over the years.

Education was just as important. “The one thing that my parents stressed was education, growing up,” stated Bynum. The importance that her mother and father instilled in her is something that carries on till this day and uses it to help the students on campus.

It is important to have advisors, counselors, instructors and other representatives like Bynum. She is dedicated to meeting the needs of all students no matter what. She is willing to put in the blood, sweat and tears to safeguard the dreams and aspirations of hundreds of local students.

“Our end goal is serving the students,” said Bynum. Our educational system need more dedicated pioneers like herself who will supply the bricks needed to rebuild a sturdy academic foundation desperately needed by all students.