After working with high school students for the past seven years in Las Vegas, Nevada Christina Robles packed her bags and moved to Texas. This school year she begins her eighth year as a counselor.

Robles will partake in many projects throughout the year. The first being that she will serve as a liaison for the AVID program. She will also be working as an English learner liaison with English learning students. Lastly, she will be helping out on senior awards night along with serving her caseload when it comes to her students. Before finding an interest in counseling, Robles changed her major six times in college. She ended up graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. She loves studying other cultures, languages, and people all around the world. After that, she got into property management and was doing multi-family housing for several years. Eventually, her mother-in-law led her to be a counselor.

“My mother-in-law who had been a teacher for about 20 years, decided to go into counseling,” Robles said. “I shadowed her as she was going through it and talked to her about what she was doing. She loved it [her job] so I took an interest in it. I love working with teenagers especially, so I knew that I wanted to be in high school.”

As a high school counselor, Robles has many responsibilities. Some days can be long and busy, and oftentimes, she never knows what her day will entail.

“We [counselors] wear a lot of hats and every day looks different, which is what I love about the job,” Robles said. “You could have your whole day planned out and you think you have your order of business and then something can come up and you just drop everything.”

Robles’ counselor in high school was not very supportive, so she vowed that she did not want to be that kind of person. She supports her students all while creating a healthy balance between her work and home life.

“When students are in genuine crisis it’s tough because I’m a very empathetic person so I feel what they feel, but I can’t take that home with me to my family,” Robles said. “It’s about boundaries and making sure that I’m supporting my students and loving them well, but making sure that I have balance in my life so that I’m not carrying all the heaviness with me.”

Students are the center of Robles’ job and also happen to be her favorite part of the job. She enjoys building relationships with them and watching them grow.

“I love getting to know my students personally,” Robles said. “Whether it’s getting to know a freshman and seeing them through graduation and how they grow, it’s really rewarding. I love working with my seniors too, during the college application process or military acceptances and seeing them swear in. All of those big events that I get to share with them are really exciting.”