Each year, Deborah Long must complete what she calls a "terrible task." Working with a team to review about 100 applications from low-income high school freshmen in the Alamance County community, she must select about 60 to invite in for interviews before eventually selecting 26 to join other scholars in the Elon Academy.
"It's really hard, so hard," she said.
Since 2007, Long has served as the director of the Elon Academy, a college-access program she helped develop. But Long's experience with issues of access to education did not originate with her involvement with the Academy.
Raised in a family of five children — four girls and one boy — Long was the only girl who went to college.
"I can identify with students who come from families where the siblings didn't go to college," she said. "My mother and father did but they didn't encourage us to go to college. I identify with students who maybe don't have as much encouragement from home as some of their peers."
An Unexpected Calling
After graduating in 1970 from Colby College with a degree in psychology, Long said she was unable to find a job. She came to North Carolina on a whim with a friend, rented an apartment and began waitressing.
It was then that Long discovered Teacher Corps, a now-nonexistent program similar to the Peace Corps, that provided federal funding for students to work toward a master's degree while being mentored and teaching in a low- income area.
"When I heard that someone might finance my education, I thought, 'Maybe I do want to think about being a teacher,'" she said. "The idea was that I didn't want to be a waitress for the rest of my life so I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity and maybe it will work out and maybe it won't, but what do I have to lose?"
She entered the two-year program in 1971 and taught in a low-income area in Virginia. It was there that she fell in love with teaching and, most importantly, her interactions with students and their families.
"I felt what I was doing was important and making a contribution, which is what I wanted," she said. "I work with students who are underserved and go to under-resourced schools."
Foundations for a Teaching Philosophy
After graduating from Teacher Corps, Long taught for three years in Durham schools before moving to South Carolina and eventually Arkansas with her husband, putting her teaching career on hold and planning to start a family.
It was there that she was exposed to the Montessori system of teaching that would later define the structure of the Elon Academy. Though she did not teach in the classroom, she was active in the Montessori School her students attended.
Originating in Italy, the program was developed by Maria Montessori who wanted to provide education for children living on the streets. The curriculum is highly structured and based on the individual learning styles of each student.
"Students in the Elon Academy are on all different levels socially, emotionally, academically," she said. "They come in as unique people, there is no average kid. In public schools, you are forced to teach to the average student. With these students, you're able to individualize more and understand each student, what they need and how to structure their environment."
In 1986, Long re-entered the classroom when Lyon College in Arkansas asked her join the faculty as an adjunct professor.
"I absolutely loved college teaching," she said. "I loved my students, I loved the environment, it was stimulating and exciting."
Though her children were still young at the time, Long said she realized that if she wanted to remain in higher-education, she needed to get her doctorate. She began taking classes part time at the University of Memphis, a two and a half hour commute from her home, while also teaching full-time at the College. After eight years, she earned a doctorate in curriculum and instruction.
Discovering a Life's Passion
In 1996, Elon University was brought to Long's attention when a colleague at Lyon mentioned a job opening. While she had never heard of then Elon College, she decided to look into it.
While visiting her daughter at Duke University, she received a call from the college asking her to come in for an interview. Without dress clothes, teaching materials or her research, she decided to go for it.
"When I applied, it was just an idea, an opportunity but I would be fine whether I got it or not," she said. "Then I got here and I fell in love with Elon and really wanted the job. I thought this was exactly the place for me, with an emphasis on teaching, community support, service. All of those things really resonated with me."
After a long wait, she found out she got the job and moved to Elon in 1996. In 2002, she was named the department chair for education, a position she held until 2006, the same year President Leo Lambert called Long into his office with a proposition that would change the rest of her life.
"Cummings High School had been threatened with closure and President Lambert was concerned with what Elon was doing for the local community," she said.
Lambert asked Long to serve as the faculty administrative fellow and assistant to the president during the development of a college-access program for local high school students that he wanted to see fully functional in one year's time.
A Mother of Many
Long said her own experience growing up in family that offered little support influenced her interactions today with students and their families, many of who did not attend college and don't understand the process.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for families," she said. "Being poor doesn't equal lazy and people make the assumption that if people worked hard enough, they could get ahead. I've seen it and it's not true. Some of the people I see worked harder than anyone I know just to make ends meet."
Perhaps the most significant influence on Long's work with the Elon Academy has been her personal experiences as a mother. "I want for these students what I wanted for my own children," she said. "I think about the interactions, whether to be firm, supportive, do they need a hug or do they need a little boost? It's the same with your own children."
Long typically tells people she has 100 children: three that are biologically her own and the 97 students she has worked with through the academy.
"Even when I have tough conversations, I always tell them I wouldn't have this conversation if didn't care about them, I'd just turn away," she said. "I always look at each child as if I'm talking to my own child. What would I want someone else to be saying to my child?"