After 39 years of guiding and supporting students at Wayne State College, Lin Brummels, director of counseling, decided to retire and start a new chapter of her life.

“My first job after my bachelor’s degree was a house parent/home manager in a group home for adolescents,” Brummels said. “That got me interested in knowing more about on how to work with people.”

The counseling center started out small and served many different roles, including advising for undeclared students, disability services, supported students that were victims of sexual violence, and developed the alcohol education program as well as Wildcat Wheels.

“I was helped along by wonderful staff,” Brummels said. “We worked as a team and continued to work as a team. Like any kind of program, it works best when you have people pulling together.”

As the director of the counseling department, Brummels received numerous awards and recognition for her service to the university.

“I got the professional staff award one year, received my counseling/mental health practitioner license and we had the accreditation of the counseling center,” Brummels said.

Brummels has had mixed emotions about retiring because of the relationships she developed with her co-workers and students.

“It is a real mixed [feeling of retiring], I hate leaving the students; but I hate driving on these roads,” Brummels said. “This was one of my thoughts, when I picked this time of year to retire, ‘Oh good, I will not have to drive on the ice this winter, and here it is, it beat me to it.’”

Looking back on her time at WSC, Brummels said she gained as much from the students as they did from her. The experiences are something she will cherish as she steps down from her position.

“I think that I have grown with the students as they have changed,” Brummels said. “I cried with them and I tried to assist people from where they are at, to where they want to go.”

Although Brummels resides only a short distance from Wayne in Winside, she knows that leaving WSC also means she will no longer be a part of the Wayne community.

“Wayne has provided me a second home for many years,” Brummels said. “It has given me the opportunity to work with students and a variety of capacities over time. The real joy is the students. [What I will take with me after I retire] will certainly be a wealth of experience working with different students in many different capacities.”