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Campus Security Chief Keeps Learning
by Loretta Akins
Still Everything nice
...and more than sugar and spice (Cheerleader captain photo from 1965 H.S. yearbook)
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Never in a million years would Sandra Robertson's parents have guessed what career path their daughter would take.
In high school she was a cheerleader who never liked to get her hands dirty and was bothered by snakes and bugs -- the typical sugar-and-spice type of girl, and the youngest of eight children.
She didn't seem the type who would become a criminal investigator - the job she held for nine years before coming to Mars Hill College. She is now director of campus safety/security and coordinator of the judicial board.
"If my mother and father were alive, they would be doing flips at what I used to do for a living. We'd have to discuss the fact that I don't mind looking at a dead body or going to the body farm.
"My parents were raised as Quakers, then went on to become Baptist -- Conservative Baptist. The way the older generation views dead bodies or death is totally different from now."
Robertson worked for nine years as a criminal investigator for the district attorney in the 24th district. Homicide is her specialty, which explains why in her spare time she loves to read murder mysteries and watch the CBS show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
She also likes to do acrylic painting and needlework. "It's very relaxing."
Robertson grew up in a "Great Big!" family in Mitchell County. Although she had seven sisters and brothers, she was closer in age to her nephews and nieces. "They drove me crazy." She has 19 nieces and nephews and now has great nieces and nephews. Her parents were very much older when she was born. Her mother was 46. "I grew up in the Sixties. It was a great time. I'm sure I drove my parents crazy. It was rock 'n' roll, and they were much older."
Robertson was the first in her family to go to college. She already had certification as a criminal investigator through the North Carolina Justice Academy before she graduated from Mars Hill College in 2001 as an ACCESS student with a bachelor's degree in sociology. She obtained a master's degree in criminal justice from East Carolina in May of 2005.
Throughout her educational career she has attended classes while holding a full time job and trying to keep her vows of marriage.
"This is the first year I haven't been in school. I'm going back to do something. I want to do an add-on to my master's. I really think learning is a life-long process. I need to keep doing it. I don't want to get stale. I miss it. Not just learning, the interaction with your peers.
"My husband has handled it very well, but I'm not sure how he will handle me telling him I want to go back. I think I'll be going to school when I'm ninety."
Lessons Learned in Brothers' Fate
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