Darlene Roach began her career as a counselor at Fresno City College in July of 1985. On June 29, 2012, after serving as a guiding light to almost four generations of students in search of their own career paths, Roach will set upon a new path of her own in retirement.
While working towards her master’s in counseling, Roach interned at the Marjaree Mason Center, a shelter for women and children trying to escape abusive relationships. Prior to her professional career, Roach helped to form Fresno Parenting which was oriented towards single parents from abusive relationships. Roach began her professional career with the Fresno County Office of Education before moving on to high school counseling. Several years later Roach was hired full-time at FCC.
“I’ve always been a nosey person,” she says, “I’m curious about people’s lives. I like to explore people’s history and look at different cultures and things like that so [counseling] was just kind of a natural.”
Counseling has allowed her to draw upon her own life experiences and, thereby, assist the students who come to see her. As a student in the master’s program, Roach was drawn to re-entry women. A divorced mother with two children, she did not receive child support and therefore understood all too clearly the struggles that re-entry women face.
“Because of my own personal experiences,” says Roach, “I think that I have developed a real sense of what’s going on with folks. It took me ten years here at night to finish my 70 transferable units because I had to work full time.”
For this reason Roach understands and connects with her students.
“I haven’t read it in the books, I’ve lived it and I’m here to tell you just have to hold onto your dream and you have to plan one step at a time and you just keep moving forward,” she says.
The most rewarding part of being a “servant-counselor” she says, is when the students remember to come back and tell her they have made choices that have turned their lives around because of the advice she has given them.
“Every day is a reward because every day I connect with someone and I know that I’m a bridge to them making a better choice about their career or personal life,” says Roach.
Along with the fulfillment that her chosen career has brought her, there have been some heartbreaking drawbacks as well. Due to cutbacks to the state and community college budget, students whom Roach has helped map out college transfer schedules now may not be able to attend the four year colleges they’d planned.
The budget issues are of grave concern to Roach. The rise in tuition costs, caps on the number of students per class and the unavailability of classes needed to transfer, she says, “closes access to students who want to come here. So, my personal feeling is that affects every student in California, not only at this level but at CSU level.”
Roach would like to see education made a priority by the state.
“I’d like to see some changes in the priorities at the federal and the state level for monies to come into these systems because it’s worth investing in our citizens,” she says.
Roach plans to begin her retirement with some much needed rest and then spend some time traveling with her 86-year-old mother. She has no plans to stop working, however. She loves to help people and would like to volunteer with senior adult literacy or children’s literacy or go back to working with victims of domestic violence.
