We always appreciate the chance to celebrate the rock star staff at Inspire, and we love it when the community recognizes their hard work. Recently, Inspire teacher Erin Hall was honored as a 2021 Chico Rotary Club Educator of the Year!
Each year, Chico Noon Rotary honors educators of the year from CSU, Chico, Butte College, Fairview High School, Pleasant Valley High School, Chico High School, and Inspire School of Arts & Sciences. They reach out to administrators from each organization to choose outstanding educators that demonstrate deep commitment to students. This year, Erin Hall earned the honor at Inspire, and it is well-deserved.
As an outstanding Digital Media Arts teacher, Erin helps bring up young people who are both highly skilled in their field, but also creative, compassionate, confident, and adaptable. If you’ve seen his students’ photography, video, or animation, you see excellent work that has garnered attention regionally and statewide. But what you don’t see is the way students are embedded in the processes of their craft, working with peers, developing narratives, choosing sound, images, light, and angles carefully in order to tell a story.
Erin’s students frequently say that he helped them find what they wanted to do with their lives. Because of his work, students feel empowered to tackle creative projects from the ground-up and to follow through to the final production.
Erin models for students what adulthood could look like when you’re passionate about your work, when you take joy in it, when you’re always learning. When we ask students, “Who’s your person, your trusted adult on campus?” It’s so often Erin. He helps them become artists, thinkers, and do-ers capable of not just being in the world, but changing it.
Finally, Erin is an amazing contributor to our staff as a whole. He has worked with multiple teachers to create cross-discipline curriculum. He frequently takes on video projects that require hours of his time outside of class for the good of the school. He also is always in class in the evenings and weekends to support students in completing their projects.
We are so grateful to Chico Noon Rotary for the opportunity to shout about what Erin does for Inspire students and for the larger community. Congratulations, Mr. Hall, and thank you for being part of what makes Inspire such an amazing place.
ABOUT ERIN HALL
Erin Hall is a west coast native, growing up and hiking in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada, surfing the beaches of Marin County, fishing the streams of Southern Idaho and riding the trails in Santa Cruz County before making his way to Chico California. Erin was drawn to the community of Chico and Inspire’s mission in 2014 when he continued his teaching journey at Inspire. Since then he has helped Inspire create an award winning Digital Media Arts Program.
Erin teaches video, graphic design, digital photography, and animation. He helps prepare students by educating them in the skills specific to their chosen careers, but he also teaches them how to be creative, adaptable, focused, collaborative, and capable of leading.
When Erin isn’t teaching in the classroom he is working with his students through Inspire’s Hawks Nest Studios Video Club and Inspire’s SkillsUSA Program. Erin provides individualized learning opportunities by working with students after school and on the weekends to further their excitement and cultivate a passion for learning in the digital arts. He helps students to become effective leaders and directors, understand industry standard technology, implement visual and conceptual ideas, and produce quality work with their peers.
Recently, Erin’s dedication to student success has seen his students garner recognition across the state and nation as they’ve become 2 time Digital Cinema State Champions and took home a bronze medal in the 2019 SkillsUSA National Championships. Today, when Erin isn’t teaching or helping students accomplish their goals, you will find him doing what he loves to do in his off time: playing with his twin daughters, riding his mountain bike, or casting out a fly in one of his favorite rivers.
