Each year the Hampton County Chamber of Commerce strives to go the extra mile to make a difference for our county and its citizens and to honor those in the community who share the same vision and mission. On Wednesday, Feb. 17, the Chamber recognized USC Salkehatchie alumna Erin Long (Wade Hampton High School Media Specialist) as its Educator of the Year.
If you ask Erin, her favorite part of her job is working with students. She enjoys helping them plan for their future. Long's official title at Wade Hampton High School is media specialist, but she also wears many other hats.
Since starting at Wade Hampton, she has been their website supervisor and social media director; she also took over as graduation coordinator after Mrs. French retired. In the last year. Long has been named Wade Hampton High School Teacher of the Year, Hampton District One Teacher of the Year, and students voted her “Most Likely to be able to Fix Anything”!
Long helped lead Wade Hampton through a formal graduation during the pandemic and has assisted in live streaming various events put on by the school so that the community can still see all the wonderful things happening at the school over the last few months. She does all this while handling computer distribution and repair, co-teaching college prep lessons, and being part of the leadership team.
Long is a Wade Hampton High School graduate. She went on to attend USC Salkehatchie and received her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from USC Aiken. She has taught at Allendale Middle School and Hampton Elementary. In 2017, she took a position at Wade Hampton as their media specialist and in 2019 earned a Master of Information Science from the University of South Carolina Columbia.
Outside of her career, Long enjoys spending time with her family. They like to travel, go camping, and hike. Her plan for the future is to continue helping the students of Hampton County prepare for college and enjoying life with her family.