Matt McCarthy Spotlight
Matt McCarthy is a proud Housatonic alumnus. He serves on the Housatonic Community College Foundation Board of Directors, volunteers in the Business department, and mentors young people including a current Housatonic student. He does all of this while serving on the Bridgeport City Council and working as a CPA. Matt shared that the support at Housatonic, combined with affordability, set him up on the path to success.
Before coming to Housatonic, Matt struggled to stay in school as a young man. It wasn’t until his battle with drugs and alcohol gave him a wake-up call that he decided to go back to school.
During that time, Matt had moments when he wanted to quit. But two Housatonic instructors gave him the confidence to complete his degree.
“I was hopeless, and I never thought I would get out of it. But I did. I made that choice. It wasn’t all me though.”
After graduating from Housatonic and attending WestConn, he decided to return to Housatonic to earn the remaining required credits for his CPA degree. During that time he served as the student representative on the Foundation Board. When he began his first CPA job at Earnst & Young, he only had $10,000 in debt, compared to his coworkers with $100,000-200,000 in debt.
“We had the same job with the same pay right out of college. I believe that my return on investment was far greater than my peers who went to non-community college, non-state schools. So I tell anybody who will listen it’s not where you go, but what you do while you were there.”
Matt used his education to leverage a bright future, and later went on to start his own business. However, his service to others never ended. In 2014, Matt started mentoring 5th grade student named Treshawn.
“When I started mentoring Treshawn in 2014 I was just doing it to try to do something for someone else. My grandmother and my father taught me to be a man for others… When he was in the eighth grade, he and his mother wrote me a letter thanking me for everything I have done. It really brought tears to my eyes because I did not realize the impact I had on someone else. I am still involved in his life today and he is a full time student at Housatonic.
I believe we should all try to give back to our community by mentoring. There are so many children out there who may not have a father figure in their life. It might feel impossible to save everyone, but we can try one child at a time. “
Today, Matt continues to grow his business, and is preparing his campaign for his re-election on the city council. He says that in the future he hopes to teach at Housatonic, and bring everything back full circle.
