Michael Roberts’ Triumphant & Inspirational Journey

Michael Roberts, English instructor at Fresno City College, grew up in a self-contained community in Stockton, California.

His neighborhood was lower middle-class and small, with a mom and pop grocery store within walking distance and a neighborhood pool at the end of the block.

His parents were neither poor, nor were they wealthy, but if he wanted for anything extra he was expected to provide for himself, so he found work. At the age of 10, he was delivering newspapers, and at age 16, he was mowing lawns.

Throughout his life, Roberts has exhibited unequivocal success through his independence; living life on his own terms, taking chances and failing miserably at times, but never letting failure intimidate him. Rather than being discouraged, Roberts has always yearned for a challenge.

An avid reader and runner in high school, Roberts didn’t venture far from his handful of friends. Instead, he could be found with his nose in a book, or writing, a passion he had discovered in his teenage years.

After graduating from high school, Roberts moved to Turlock to live with his girlfriend while his parents were on vacation. “They took off for vacation and I took off for Turlock,” Roberts said.

Unfortunately, what seemed like a good idea at the time turned into a downhill battle of trying to make it on his own.

“It didn’t work out very well,” said Roberts, “I had three, four, five jobs in a year. Too young to be on my own without any direction.”

After getting in two car accidents in one week and totalling both cars, Roberts hit rock bottom.

Roberts said, “I would have been 19 years old at the time, and I kind of hit the dumps.”

After a year and a half of lone traveling and hitchhiking, Roberts found himself back in Stockton and starting school at the San Joaquin Delta Community College.

He attended San Joaquin Delta from 1977 to 1980 as a natural resource major. In addition to his studies, he worked for the National Park Service at Yosemite National Park.

“The first job I flew all around the park in a helicopter fighting fires,” says Roberts. “And the second job was on a trail crew building trails all over the park,” Roberts said.

Unfortunately, working while also attending school hindered his academic momentum.

“It took me four years to go through community college,” Roberts said.“I only went spring semester [because] I was living in the backcountry for most of the time during the summer…all the way [to] October which put me through the fall semester.”

Not only did it take Roberts two additional years to make it through community college, but when he finally transferred to UC Davis, he was completely unprepared and unaware of what was expected of him.

“I didn’t receive any counseling, none whatsoever on the way,” Roberts said, “I didn’t know that the natural sciences are math heavy, so when I got to [UC Davis], they put me in trigonometry and calculus at the same time…needless to say, I didn’t do so well.”

Discouraged and overwhelmed, Roberts ventured into the English department and even explored the field of journalism by becoming a freelance theatre critic for The California Aggie.

By 1982, after three years of writing for the university paper, Roberts was finally on the brink of receiving his English degree.

“I didn’t know what the heck I was going to do with a degree in English,” Roberts said, “one day I got a letter in the mail from the school of education at Davis inviting me to be a part of the credential program. I had a decent GPA, had all the English classes, so I said, ‘what the heck.’”

He ended up getting a credential and his degree at the same time.

From there, Roberts began his teaching career as a short-time substitute at Woodland High School. Shortly after working there, he applied for a full-time position at Firebaugh High School and taught there for the next eight years.

In the fall of 1984, Roberts moved from Firebaugh to Madera where he eventually met his wife. He then began his masters program in English at Fresno State.

“I had an instant family, brand new job, masters program, and I commuted all at the same time,” Roberts says. “I was taking off at seven in the morning and coming home sometimes at 11:30 at night.”

In 1988, Roberts was offered an opportunity to teach two evening English classes at FCC.

In 1990, he began a second masters program in Bilingualism. For four years, he juggled his full-time teaching at Firebaugh High School, his classes at FCC, finishing his first masters and starting the second masters. All while being a husband and remaining connected to his family.

Finally, in 1992, Roberts became a full-time instructor at Fresno City College, but never did he slow down.

“I was Academic Senate President, and before that, I was on the executive board for the Academic Senate. I served on the Curriculum Committee [and] was department chair for five or six years within the English department, so I did a quite a few things within that time,” Roberts said.

In 2004 Roberts stepped out of the classroom and applied for the Dean of Humanities position. He held the title for six and a half years. Although he was still able to teach while being dean, the experience was tasking and completely different from instructing.

“It’s really hard to teach while you’re being dean,” Roberts said, “If a student saw me when I was the dean, it was because the student had done something bad or had to complain about an instructor, or had a problem that had to be solved almost immediately.”

Until a year before stepping down as dean, Roberts was also the coordinator of the Leon S. Peters Honors program. In an effort to better the program though, faculty coordinator Wayne Cole was hired by Roberts. After Cole retired, Roberts reapplied to the honors program and was appointed the permanent coordinator.

Until his recent resignation as the Honors Program coordinator, Roberts was the advisor for two-and-a half years. Although he does not see himself retiring for another “three to five years”, he wants to ensure that the next coordinator is prepared.

“I want someone to take over without just kind of dumping it on [them],” Roberts said. “I will be here to answer any questions.”

While a renowned English instructor here at FCC, Roberts is also well known for his works of poetry. His love for writing blossomed in 2000 when he entered Fresno State’s masters program in Fine Arts. “I started writing seriously and sending out my poetry, and getting into some fairly decent publications, national publications,” says Roberts. “And at the end of all that…[I] publish[ed] a book.”

Not only does Roberts have an affinity for writing, but also an unconditional love for running. When he isn’t teaching or working on his poetry, Roberts can often be found jogging around Fresno. “My biggest accomplishment [in] my personal life [would be] running just under 50 marathons,” said Roberts. “Running ultra marathons [and] 50 mile races, and completing those on a personal level.”

Today Roberts only holds the title of English teacher here at FCC. Although he would very much like a Ph.D to accompany his three master’s degrees, his once hectic pace has finally quieted to placidity.

With his step-daughter living in Minnesota and his son in Washington, Roberts and his wife enjoy Fresno and the outdoors together.

Before retiring within the next five years, Roberts intends to continue teaching, writing, reading, running, and enjoying his family. He said, “Getting hired here at Fresno City College to teach students like you — that is an accomplishment.”