MATC student Naomi Omoruyi, center, with Layla Merrifield, WTCS System President, right, and Justin Fischer, Managing Director of Baird.
I have received so much support here. If I have a question, someone will help me with the answer. And people here are so very patient. I can ask them 10 questions and they will answer all of them and still be smiling.
Even in bed, Naomi Omoruyi rarely sleeps.
“I can lie down and do anything there: Read a book, watch a movie or just relax,” she said.
The Milwaukee Area Technical College student relishes her downtime because she has had so little of it since her family moved from Nigeria in western Africa to the United States two years ago.
She started classes at MATC in the fall of 2023 and seemingly has been perpetually in motion.
This spring, Omoruyi seems to be all over the place. She’s taking 24 credits, learning Spanish, working as a math tutor, serving as an officer in the college’s District Student Association and volunteering at a senior citizen group home.
On top of all that — and because of all that — in February she was selected to represent MATC as a student ambassador to the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) until the spring of 2026.
“As I have gotten to know her better, I am humbled by the responsibilities she so ably carries,” MATC math instructor Eric Hagedorn, Ph.D., wrote in a letter of recommendation for Omoruyi. “Her sense of humor is delightful, and she carries herself with genuine dignity.”
Each year, Wisconsin’s 16 technical colleges select one student to participate in a leadership development and recognition program in late April in Wisconsin Dells. Following that session, the students officially serve as WTCS ambassadors for one year and, unofficially, for a lifetime.
MATC received 33 completed applications for the position, which includes a $1,250 scholarship, said Anne-Marie Bernard, MATC’s student life manager. Students must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 and meet other criteria. A committee scores the applications and selects the ambassador.
The oldest of three children, Omoruyi was born and raised in Nigeria. Her parents are teachers and heard that Milwaukee Public Schools was hiring international instructors and applied. They got positions and expected the visa and moving process to take several months. Instead, MPS expedited the paperwork. Her family packed, moved and boarded a plane to the United States in only a few weeks. “We left some of our things behind in the house,” she said.
The family landed at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on a frozen day in February 2023. “We were all wearing coats over coats over coats,” she recalled. “I couldn’t believe how cold it was.”
Before leaving Nigeria, Omoruyi found MATC on the internet and decided to enroll in the Marketing program once she got to Wisconsin. “I didn’t really want to go to a four-year school right away, especially right after moving to somewhere entirely new,” she said.
When her family left Nigeria, she was about to start the third year of her law program at the University of Port Harcourt. But law had lost its luster, she said. “I had always enjoyed copywriting and working with ads,” she said.
Last year Omoruyi turned 21, which meant she had to change her visa status from dependent to student. She decided to switch from Marketing to MATC’s Associate of Science program in the General Education Academic and Career Pathway. She plans to transfer to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s nursing program in the spring of 2026. She wants to work as a labor and delivery nurse and eventually earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.
Getting an Associate of Science degree requires taking a fair amount of math courses, a subject that Omoruyi once flunked. “In Nigeria, all students in the nation are required to take tests each year on certain subjects,” she said. “On my math test I pretty much got the worst of all possible scores.”
Her mother, a math teacher, got a tutor to help her. Omoruyi discovered that she knew the subject matter, but she became anxious about taking tests.
At MATC, her mastery of math quickly became apparent, especially in group work during her Mathematical Reasoning course, taught by Dr. Hagedorn.
“She often led her group to successful solutions and more importantly, she led each member of her group to a better understanding of what was going on,” he wrote in his recommendation letter.
Last fall, Omoruyi served as an embedded tutor in the same class and did not disappoint, Dr. Hagedorn wrote. “Despite carrying a ridiculous number of credits, she was always on time for our class and still helping students in the class understand and learn math that many find challenging,” he wrote. “She is a tremendous role model for our students and consistently encourages and supports the learning of even the most challenged students.”
“I went from failing a math test to being a math tutor,” Omoruyi said with a laugh.
Omoruyi is looking forward to representing the college as a WTCS student ambassador. She wants to give back to the college where she has got ample assistance and found much success. She has been nominated to the National Society of Leadership and Success, the nation’s largest leadership honor society, and so far has compiled a 3.9 grade point average in her classes.
“I have received so much support here,” she said. “If I have a question, someone will help me with the answer. And people here are so very patient. I can ask them 10 questions and they will answer all of them and still be smiling.
“At the end of the day, school is supposed to prepare you for life,” she added. “Sometimes, the smartest path is the one that gets you where you want to go faster and with fewer obstacles.”
Read about MATC’s previous WTCS Student Ambassadors:
About MATC: As Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s economy and has provided innovative education in the region since 1912. More than 30,000 students per year attend the college’s four campuses and community-based sites or learn online. MATC offers affordable and accessible education and training opportunities that empower and transform lives in the community. The college offers more than 180 academic programs — many that prepare students for jobs immediately upon completion and others that provide transfer options leading to bachelor’s degrees with more than 40 four-year colleges and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates build careers and businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
