The current longest serving counselor on campus, Robin McBurney, is set to officially retire in June 2023, but in her 30 years of work at Citrus, she’s been more than a great counselor.
McBurney wears many hats including a professor, mentor, philanthropist and even an artist.
McBurney is a professor popular with students. Her Rate My Professors page is filled with glowing reviews – reviews that don’t say her class was an easy A, but that she taught skills that made students lives in other classes easier.
“She’s an amazing counselor and professor, honestly all that she teaches is very informing,” said one user. “She does make you work but it’s for your own good.”
“A lot of the things she teaches I use now everyday throughout different classes,” wrote another user.
McBurney credits her success in the classroom to creating an environment where students felt like a community.
“In the classroom my goal was not only to teach the skills on how to be a master student, like professional students, but also I created this sense of unity in the classroom and it (was) like a workshop where people get close and they really get to know each other they become friends,” McBurney said.
McBurney also credited her success in the classroom to her students for keeping each other on task.
“People fell in love, people made best friends and so if someone wasn’t coming to class, I would say, ‘Where’s so-and-so?” McBurney said. “Then a bunch of people would text them and sort of peer pressure them into coming to class.”
Fellow counselor and professor Claudia Castillo said McBurney would also teach outside of the classroom.
“I started teaching classes and right away, she said, ‘Here, I’ll train you,’ and (she) shared all her information with me without even me asking,” Castillo said. “… She was just so open right away in mentoring me and guiding me.”
McBurney didn’t just teach Castillo, though. Counseling secretary Susan Gonzales said McBurney is responsible for training about 75 to 100 counselors in the teaching program.
McBurney used her position as a counselor as well as a professor to make sure her students were taken care of even once they left her class.
“One of the assignments was they had to have a student education plan with me, so I got to know every single student and their name and what they wanted to do,” McBurnery said. “We would do follow-ups and a lot of those students would come back to me year after year until they transferred, and I still get emails from them about what they’re doing.”
In addition to this, McBurney designed and implemented an Early Alert retention program that is still in place and helps students stay in college instead of dropping out.
“One of my passions is helping people figure out how to stay in college, because statistics show that if you leave, it’s hard to get back,” McBurney said. “ … I’ve talked to tens of thousands of students over the years and hopefully have helped a lot stay in school.”
McBurney’s efforts to help people are not limited to Citrus College. McBurney said she owns a home in Guatemala where she’s built a close relationship with some Guatemalan families and said she helps in a number of charitable efforts.
McBurney said she put four people from Guatemala through college and isn’t stopping as she plans to take on funding the education of another soon.
McBurney said she took it upon herself to help fund the building of a new house for her longtime friend and housekeeper in Guatemala whose previous house was destroyed in the aftermath of a volcano eruption.
“I did a GoFundMe where all the people who rented my house in Guatemala donated,” she said.
“We got about $20,000 and were able to build her a little two-story house with two bedrooms and a bathroom.”
McBurney said she partially funded the house with money she earned after putting on a yard sale in association with the Citrus College Honors Program.
In addition to all this, McBurney said she organizes a shoe drive for her families in Guatemala.
McBurney said her charitable efforts are motivated by the idea that her helping one person can help an entire family.
“I find if you help one person, then other people in the family want to do something,” McBurney said. ”They see what can happen if you improve your education.”
Gonzales said she believes it is just who McBurney is.
“She’s a very giving person,” Gonzales said.
McBurney’s acts of kindness are also expressed through her linoleum prints, which can be seen proudly displayed on the outsides of many offices in the counseling department.
McBurney said she makes prints for all her friends on campus for Christmas, Valentine’s Day and other special occasions.
“I usually make a couple hundred,” McBurney said.
McBurney’s colleagues love the holiday prints.
“She does them all herself one by one, paints them and writes a little something nice on it, gives them to everybody here in the department and everyones got a collection,” Gonzales said.
It’s no doubt that McBurney will be missed in the counseling department, Castillo said.
“She’s one of the pillars of our counseling faculty so just to think about her retiring, we’re happy for her but it’s like the end of an era,” Castillo said.
But Castillo is confident that McBurney won’t be going anywhere far.
“I know we’re going to be lifelong friends for sure because that’s just how it’s been,” she said.
The thing McBurney said she will miss the most about working at Citrus will be her peers.
“I’ll miss my colleagues,” McBurney said. “I really like who I work with and I really like working at Citrus. The people are great and I think it’s just been a great environment. I’ve met a lot of different people. They do a lot of different things here, it’s just fascinating (here).”
