Sharon Hudgins-Beck: On Training and Transformation

Sharon believes it has always been her destiny to work in the early learning profession. “As a child, I played school with my stuffed animals and dolls,” Sharon recalls. “I would also make my little brother and his friends be my students while we were outside playing on the stoop. Then my fifth-grade teacher sealed the deal by making learning so much fun. I made up my mind to be a teacher,” Sharon says. And now she helps other people become teachers as CEO of Destiny Educational Consulting. Since 2011, Sharon has been equipping families and early childhood professionals with tools that promote healthy relationships, resilience and lifelong learning.

“My goal at Destiny Consulting is to support educators both personally and professionally,” she explains. “I believe you can’t be your best as an early learning professional unless you are the best person you can be. So, I don’t just want to pass on information during the training sessions I provide. I want to offer inspiration that leads to personal transformation by helping educators avoid burning out, manage their time without feeling overwhelmed and create a self-care routine that fits their lives.”

Sharon wants educators to bring their best selves to work, and she draws on personal experience in the guidance she brings to them. “I learned what it means to speak out for myself, as educators should do, after getting the flu and missing two weeks of classes in college,” she says. “When I tried to explain what happened to one of my professors, I became so flustered that I began whining. She told me to stop whining and tell her calmly what happened and what I needed, words that led me to undergo a transformation and begin to grow up.”

Since then, Sharon has brought a calm, disciplined approach to the many roles she’s held in the early learning field over the course of nearly 40 years. She’s been a preschool teacher and director, an education/disability specialist and a Professional Development Specialist for the Council. Along the way, she’s enhanced her skills by attending training on how to provide technical assistance to child care programs, how to use assessment instruments in early childhood classrooms and how to teach adult students. “These learning experiences shaped her on both the professional and personal level, especially an intensive teacher training program she attended while working for Quality Assist, an Atlanta-based company that provides professional development systems for early childhood teachers.

“As part of the program,” Sharon recalls, “we had to read a lot of books, including Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World by Stephen Glenn. Reading that book shifted my whole dynamic as a parent, and my children are better off because of what I learned. My two sons, who are now both in their twenties, are great thinkers and great problem solvers,” Sharon says. And she’s good at solving problems too, as she has shown by helping early childhood programs make the most of the resources they have to improve their classroom layout, build libraries with donated books and ultimately raise their program rating.

Sharon draws on her experience as a teacher to help programs make their classroom settings better, as she recalls. “I once worked in a classroom with nothing but two long tables, ten chairs, two file cabinets, some ditto sheets and a milk crate of books, many of which weren’t age appropriate for the children in the class. The children were bored and running all over the place, and I was getting frustrated. But when I told the director I needed more resources, she said this is all we have. So, I held a book drive and asked for donations of gently used toys. I also used masking tape to mark different activity areas in the room and put up signs, so the children understood where the block area was, where the space was for dramatic play was and so on. I had to be creative to show where the boundaries were since I didn’t have the furniture or shelves to do it. And I made that classroom work really well for the children.”

But even the best laid-out setting won’t succeed without skilled, competent staff. So, Sharon also shows early childhood teachers how to improve their classroom practices by helping them earn a Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™. “What I love about the CDA®,” she says, “is that it professionalizes the work that early educators do. Earning a CDA is a major accomplishment, as I tell the students who I train at Destiny Consulting. And I honor their achievement by holding a graduation ceremony each year for those who succeed in earning their credential.”

Sharon also urges them to continue their career paths by pursuing higher education, and many do, including Sarah, a young woman who Sharon considers a great success. “She was a Head Start parent, and she was able to earn her CDA through a grant. She began working on her credential during the pandemic, completed it, and now she is close to earning her associate degree at Atlanta Technical College. She’s being prepared for a leadership role in her program, and she’s a great example of what I consider transformation.”

Sarah is also attending the Expand ECE Fellowship Program offered by the Black Child Development Institute in Alanta. As coordinator of the program, Sharon supports educators who are working toward an associate or bachelor’s degree in education. “We have coaches who meet with the educators to steer them through any challenges they might face in both their academic and personal lives,” Sharon says. “The coaches help the educators get organized so they can work, study and still have time to spend with their families. It’s a support network that helps educators succeed and last year, we had 14 fellows who graduated from college.”

Many of them began with their CDA, and Sharon serves as a Professional Development Specialist who helps them take that first step in the early learning field. “Many of the educators are nervous when I come to assess them,” she says, “and I understand how they feel because I often get butterflies when I stand in front of a new room of people to do a training session. So, I begin by telling them that I’m not here to see what you’re doing wrong. I’m here to celebrate all the amazing things you are doing in the classroom. Then I do everything I can to help the educators stay calm as they’re going through their assessment, a key step on their journey into a career in ECE.”

Sharon’s own long journey in the early learning field has taught her a sense of compassion for the challenges that both educators and parents face as they try to juggle work and life. “As a young teacher, I used to get angry at parents who forgot to check their children’s book bag for needed items or who weren’t engaged in their children’s education. But once I had children of my own, I understood the challenges that busy parents face. I also learned to understand the challenges that child care directors face because I once had to spend two weeks preparing meals for 54 children in a Head Start program when both the cook and assistant cook became ill. The experience taught me that everyone’s role in an early learning program is important, whether you’re in the kitchen, driving a bus or standing in front of a classroom.”

Now Sharon brings all these life lessons to her work as a consultant, as she explains. “When I’m doing a training, I have an outline, but I’ll also ask open-ended questions that encourage people to explore life issues and challenges that prevent them from reaching their potential. In addition, I’ll share personal stories from my own life, as an educator, trainer and parent. Sometimes, it’s just a simple tip, but afterward, an educator will often come up to me and tell me how that little bit of information made them look deep within themselves and inspired them to be a better teacher, colleague, parent or friend. They walk away transformed because of something they’ve learned from me.”

Sharon, herself, is still learning after 40 years in the early childhood field. “I go to a lot of conferences, including the Council’s Early Educators Leadership Conference,” she says. “I also read a lot of books about education and business so I can continue to expand my consulting work and hire more staff. Most important of all, I learn from other trainers and consultants as we share ideas on how to achieve success with educators and children. You never stop learning because life never stops teaching. Though I’m getting close to retirement age, I’m still striving to reach my potential,” Sharon says. She’s convinced that the work to fulfill your destiny never ends.