A place that felt like home. That’s what Mackenzie Long found at East Carolina University when applying to colleges as an elementary education major. Now, as the Youngsville native prepares to cross the graduation stage on Friday as a Pirate alumna, she wants to provide that same feeling to the students in her future classrooms.
Long has known that she wanted to be a teacher since she was around three years old.
“I remember being in my bedroom with my sister, trying to teach her as she was sitting on my floor,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.”
One of Long’s favorite places on ECU’s campus is the Mall.
Her first practicum — or field experience — was what truly solidified Long’s dream of being an educator. ECU’s College of Education has a goal of getting students into classrooms early and often for an average of 720 total hours prior to graduation.
“You start in the practicum where you’re observing and then you get a little more hands-on,” Long said. “You teach a 15-minute lesson, then a 30. I went one day a week with my internship and now I’m there every single day. I think they’ve prepared me well for easing me into teaching.”
Go to class and get to know your professors is the most important piece of advice that Long can share with other students.
“They’re the ones who want to support you the most — that’s what I found with every single class at ECU.”
Long credits Jessy Pearsall, elementary education teaching instructor, as the faculty member who had the most influence on her during her time in Pirate Nation.
“I was going through a hard time during one of my semesters and she was there for me,” Long said. “She made sure I had everything I needed when I was in class and was reaching out to me. She made me feel like part of a little classroom family.”
This is the same feeling that Long hopes to encourage in her own classroom. She wants every child to leave school at the end of the day knowing that they are loved.
“I want them to have a safe place and for me to be that safe place if they don’t have it with anyone else,” she said.
Long is applying for elementary school positions in her home county and was recently accepted into ECU’s Master of Arts in Education in elementary education program.
“For the rest of my life, I’ll tell everyone that I’m an ECU Pirate educator, because I’m proud of it,” she said.