Staff Spotlight: Christine Robey
Visit the Welcome Center in Building B on the Highlands Campus, and you’ll be greeted by Christine Robey, admissions, records, and registration specialist. Robey came to SFSC in 2016 from Ohio to work with Tina Gottus, corporate and community education director, on the Excel IT grant. When the grant ended, Dr. Thomas Leitzel, SFSC president emeritus, requested that Robey serve at the Welcome Center because of her exemplary customer service skills.
Robey credits her early customer service training to her father, who was a funeral director in Parma, Ohio. She said that, at a young age, she learned to be a good communicator and to be kind and compassionate. “I was taught to be polite and to treat everyone with the same kindness no matter who they are,” she said. “My father was my role model. He would give someone the same level of service whether they were a millionaire or struggled to pay.”
For 14 years, Robey was employed at the Glenn Research Center (previously called the NASA Lewis Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio, where scientists and engineers develop propulsion, power, and communications technologies for NASA’s aeronautics and space programs. The Research Center uses its Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) to test the effects of icing conditions on aircraft components. Initially, Robey worked in the Facilities Operation Division, supporting the production controllers. The production controllers were the liaisons between engineers and technicians who performed tests in the tunnels. Often outside companies, such as Pratt and Whitney, would use the facilities. “We created and revised the research schedules as directed. We often hand-carried purchase requests for needed machine parts to Procurement for signatures to keep the project on track,” Robey said.
Robey’s job evolved and she was assigned to a call-in work order line to accommodate approximately 3,500 employees at the Research Center. Requests to the call-in line were for repairs related to roof leaks, air conditioning, light bulbs, and much more.
“I developed my customer service skills at NASA because I spoke with various people — from architects to custodians to mechanics, and the Research Center employed a cross-section of people who came from many different ethnicities,” Robey said. “I loved the interaction. So, to do what I do in the Welcome Center at SFSC, you’ve got to love people.”
Robey’s husband, John, was in the trucking business in Ohio. His son was living and working in Wauchula and owned a contracting business. When John visited his son, he happened upon a beautiful house in Sebring and the price was right. So, he called Christine in Ohio and asked her to come to Florida to see the house. “We bought it within the week,” Robey said. “And we moved to Sebring with our young son, Brandon.”
It just so happens that Robey’s son, Brandon, is now 20 years old and attends SFSC part-time while he works. According to Robey, he’s considering Computer Science but wants to graduate with an Associate in Arts and continue his education from there.
The house in Sebring, as Robey and her husband later discovered, had been the home of Dr. Clarence Johnson who was in charge of research and development for the Manhattan Project. His team isolated Uranium 235, which was essential in the development of the first atomic bomb. Coincidentally, Robey’s mother had worked for the war effort in Philadelphia assembling resistors under a microscope. She later learned that it was in support of The Manhattan Project. “I didn’t find out that’s what my mother did during World War II until she was in her 70s,” Robey said.
Robey comes from a rich Eastern European heritage. Her paternal grandfather was born in Ukraine. Her maternal grandparents came from the southern part of the former Czechoslovakia — what is now Slovakia. From 1948 to 1989, Czechoslovakia was part of the communist Eastern Bloc. During those years, Robey and her sister accompanied their mother on a visit to her aunt and cousins in Czechoslovakia on three occasions. She was 10, 16, and 20 years old. “It was like going back in time in those villages,” Robey said. “All the houses looked the same — concrete with painted metal fences. My great aunt’s house had a dirt floor with rugs over it. Their kitchen was in another building. It made me appreciate the United States. Things that are so every day for us just weren’t available.”
But Robey’s mother, who grew up speaking Slovak, kept her heritage alive. “I attended Slovak school in Parma until I was in second grade,” Robey said. “Every Saturday, I went to Slovak school to learn to read, write, and speak the language. A lot of Slovaks lived in my neighborhood, and my mother belonged to a lot of Slovak organizations in the area.”
Robey’s mother always kept the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, which is called Vilija. “A lot of my sisters still do it,” Robey said. “It’s a completely meatless meal. They serve mushroom soup and a dish called Bobalki, which is bread balls with sauerkraut. We had Pierogi and various fish — often salmon, whitefish, or perch. It was a big seafood feast and included scallops and shrimp cocktail.”
Robey attributes the knowledge she brings to her job at the College to life experience, being a good listener, and being patient. “I had to develop a level of understanding and patience to go through steps slowly with students,” she said. “If I get an opportunity, I take them to the computer in the Welcome Center and that warms them up. If you sit them down at the computer, hands on, they can see what they need to know and how to do it. They relax. Personal attention is key.”
