Nicole Golden, M.Ed.

I attribute my success first and foremost to God and my faith. There were many times when I wanted to walk away from this field and this profession. There was one particular school year when I decided I was done and started preparing my letter of resignation. As I was writing that letter, I received a phone call telling me I had been nominated for an award. They had been trying to reach me but had spelled my email address wrong because of my last name, Golden, since the E is not in my email address, so their emails never reached me. I always go back to that moment because that was nobody but God. It was a conversation I was having with God, saying I didn't want to do this anymore. After winning that award, it definitely put me in a position to re-evaluate things in terms of staying in my profession and moving forward. So much growth came after that in my professional field, including the support system, the mentorship, and the opportunity to teach abroad. My faith and my relationship with God is what I would say my success comes from.

The best piece of career advice I have ever received is that in all things that you encounter, learn from it. That speaks high volumes because in education, you're not just an educator, you learn as well. That's one of the big components of it. Whether you're learning how to analyze your data, whether you're learning how to create your classroom management, whether you're learning how to move up in your profession from an educator to a facilitator to an educational consultant, in all things that you do, make sure you continue to just learn. I label it as being a lifelong learner, because this is one of the fields where professional development is a must. You have to continue to learn and grow while you're in the field.

Just know that this industry is a work of heart. It's not something where you go into this field to make a lot of money. No, you'll change a lot of lives, you'll touch a lot of lives. If you're someone who is strong enough to be able to start in a place like this, where you can truly be impacting and making a difference in the lives of people every day, because those children have families, so believe it or not, you're impacting their families just as well. If you want to do something where you're impacting people on a daily basis, this is definitely the field for you. Again, it's a work of heart. You have to truly have a love and a passion for this work. It's not for the weak because there's so many layers to it. You're not just a teacher, you're a counselor, sometimes you even act as a parent depending on what age level you teach. You might be a custodian because you're cleaning up in the classroom, teaching the younger kids those cleanup skills. So you're wearing many, many hats, and you have to just have a love for it.

One of the biggest challenges is just the shortage of educators, and that's an issue for us nationwide. Currently, I am teaching abroad, and that too is a challenge in and of itself when we think of trying to get highly qualified teachers not just to teach in the United States, but to teach all over. So the shortage of educators and good quality teaching is a major issue. Teachers are definitely underpaid and undervalued. Many of us have side hustles and are working several jobs just trying to maintain, to be able to live and still do our job. It truly is a challenge for us, and that's on all levels, whether you're a parent or you're not a parent. As an educator, the field is undervalued and underpaid.

My values are more than one. Definitely, you know, faith in God, because that's the backbone, that's my strength. Also being true to myself, knowing who I am and what I stand for, even just thinking about my philosophy in education. Who I am comes full circle because my philosophy in education kind of also resonates with my philosophy just as a mother. When I'm teaching my daughter, it's about building her confidence. One of my biggest values in education is always letting my students know that they're golden. When I tell them that they're golden, we know that that means that they're capable of learning. There's nothing that they can't do. So that's a big value, always instilling the confidence in my students, and then that goes full circle with my daughter as well, building her confidence. Her business, as she's building girls' self-esteem, is backed by her golden affirmations. So God, building confidence through affirmation, those would be the biggest high-value pieces.