Sahirah Boyd comes from a multi-generational family of teachers. But she had no intention of following that family legacy.
During her first semester of college in Washington, D.C., she worked as a telemarketer but quickly realized that schedule was interfering with her weekend enjoyment. She also realized she wasn’t really that interested in college. So she searched for a 9-to-5 job that would suit her. That’s when she found an agency—one of the first of its kind—that hired substitute teachers for early childhood education.
Sahirah was assigned a substitute position with an early childhood center within the U.S. Department of Justice. It was 1999, and ECE teachers did not have to have a college degree to work. It didn’t take long for the director of the center to recognize Sahirah’s natural gifts as a teacher. The director mentored Sahirah and invested in her professional development, and before long Sahirah was hired full time and promoted to a lead teacher position.
“I was given a classroom with 20 boys with developmental delays,” Sahirah says. Other teachers were overwhelmed in that environment. Small wonder, since teachers were rarely trained for such situations. But Sahirah would literally get on the same level as her students. “I’d flip on the floor with them, and they would listen to me.”
But Sahirah was “just there to get a paycheck,” until she realized she was good at the job AND having fun with it. That’s when she “became a teacher” and decided to stick with it.
In spite of that, in 2005 Sahirah decided to move back to her hometown of Hartford, Connecticut, to study pre-law. Before long she became disillusioned with the program and left college.
In 2008 she moved to Philadelphia where she married and had three children. She continued teaching in preschool and pre-k settings where she gathered more training and experience with children with developmental delays and disabilities. “Children were getting expelled from pre-k because of their behavioral challenges,” she says. “They would have aggression. They couldn’t sit still, they couldn’t focus.” Without extensive training, teachers “might be able to identify children with autism, but you’re not given the tools to work with them.” But Sahirah kept getting on their level and coming up with creative ways to engage the children in her classroom.
Sahirah finally concluded that without a degree, she would never get the pay or positions that she wanted. By this time she was divorced, and she continued teaching in Philadelphia and completed internships while getting her BS in Child Studies. Through this online program with Post University in Connecticut, she studied the development and psychology of children. The degree gave her a great foundation for teaching, but it could also springboard her into therapy or social work. She decided to continue on at Post University and earned her MS in Counseling and Human Services.
While Sahirah completed her schooling, the Covid pandemic raged. In 2022, with her new degrees in hand, she and her children had a family meeting to discuss the possibility of moving.
“I had always wanted to experience the South and something different than city life up north,” she says. “We talked about it and decided to move. We got rid of all our stuff, packed my little Nissan, took the back roads, and moved to Stone Mountain.” She and her family love the quality of life here and the fact that they can get so much more living space for the money. Her girls—now ages 7, 10, and 12—“love it here. They love their school and acclimated very quickly.”
And Sahirah very quickly found a job posting for an Inclusion Coach at the Frazer Center. She applied and interviewed. Sahirah’s passion is palpable and was recognized by the entire administrative team of the Child Development Program. She landed the job and started her new position in May 2024.
“I hit the ground running,” says Sahirah. “I knew what my purpose was, and I understood that this would be the only job where everything I had been through in life—with children, with my career, even my personal life—was going to apply here.”
The first thing Sahirah did was to establish connections with the teachers. “I asked them, What is it you need from me? How can I work with you and how can I best support you? That opened up a door,” she says, “and now I have great partnerships with them.”
Sahirah is a practicing Muslim. She converted when she was 14, and her religion provides her with steadfast principles that guide her life. “It’s my foundation. As a Muslim, we believe there is nothing on this earth that there’s not a cure for except death,” she says. “So when I am working with a child with a rare genetic condition or an identified need, I never limit them. I never say in the back of my mind, Oh this child doesn’t have strong gross motor skills, he can’t master jumping. Instead I say, How can I support this child to help them get to that goal of jumping on two feet? That’s my foundation. That’s what keeps me focused throughout my days. I don’t have complete control over anything, but I’m here to be a helper.”
Sahirah says that Frazer’s inclusion program is unique in that our inclusion coaches are in-house. “I don’t know if people realize the gem that this program is. This team is the best I’ve ever worked with—a bunch of collective brains who are brilliant,” she says. “We sit together, we get along, and we problem-solve. I just love it. This has become the best job I’ve ever worked.”
Part of Sahirah’s love for Frazer is the recognition that our mission of inclusion applies not just to our children’s and adult programs, but to our work culture as well. “It’s literally the only place I’ve ever worked where I am completely myself. I’ve always had to box myself in at other places, but here I can just be me,” she says. “I have tons of ideas and I go fast. That can be problematic at some places. It can seem ambitious, and it can create the idea of competition.” But Sahirah’s colleagues at Frazer recognize that it’s her passion for the work that drives her. “It’s a great environment. I’ve never worked where I belong completely. I completely belong here.”
Indeed she does.