Kalicia Sears Is Fulfilling her Dream

Kalicia and her daughter, Blair

Kalicia Sears, the Assistant Director of the Infant-Toddler program at 58 Berkeley, thinks she was born into this role. As a child she saw a need, found a role model, and set off on the path that’s brought her continued growth and success.

The oldest of four children, Kalicia helped her grandmother raise her siblings. “My siblings were all close in age, but they were my first babies,” Kalicia says. With few role models in her Chicago neighborhood, Kalicia bonded with her fifth grade teacher Mrs. Ross and decided to be like her. Inspired by these two formative experiences, Kalicia left Chicago for college in Florida, where she studied early childhood education and planned to be a kindergarten teacher.

After having a daughter of her own, Kalicia took a detour. She left school to focus on her daughter and briefly headed to Texas. She came to Boston in November 2019, where her mother and sister offered a family support system. The pieces of her life fell quickly into place. Thanks to having a niece at Ellis, Kalicia found her first teaching job just a month after arriving, becoming an assistant infant teacher. “I needed a village, and I found it in Boston with my family and with Ellis,” Kalicia says.

Kalicia loved her new job. “I was so comfortable that I didn’t want to go back to school. I was lucky that my director Aiyauna Terry pushed me and told me not to settle. I soon started taking online classes and working toward my certification.”

Then Covid hit. Ellis closed. Kalicia’s daughter and niece were home. But Kalicia and her family geared up. While Kalicia’s mother took care of her daughter and niece, Kalicia signed up for more online college classes and worked to become an online infant teacher.

“Online college classes were so much easier than online infant classes!” Kalicia recalls how parents would put their babies in highchairs in front of laptops and walk away. “It was almost impossible to get infants’ attention on Zoom,” Kalicia recalls. “Within minutes they’d be crying for their moms.” Kalicia and the other teachers brainstormed ways to get infants more engaged. They sang songs, read books, and helped parents find ways to interact with their babies.

Babies also struggled when they returned to classrooms where everyone was masked. Kalicia understands that pre-verbal children had special challenges. “Infants really need to see faces and expressions to understand what people are communicating. This new normal was hard!”

Because Kalicia was always flexible in the face of challenges, she was promoted to lead teacher less than 15 months after she started at Ellis. She increasingly became a resource for other teachers, reviewing letters to parents and for college applications, and helping with medication forms. When the Assistant Director job posting appeared, she prepared to apply. “I knew the staff would be on board. I needed their support, or everything would be a battle.”

But Kalicia still had doubts, and confided in her nine year-old daughter Blaire.  Every Sunday mother and daughter would look back at the past week and forward to the next. One day Kalicia shared that she wanted to try for this position but was afraid of failing.  “Why? You never failed me,” Blaire said. That was the nudge Kalicia needed. Blaire was right. The job is a good fit, and the transition has been smooth.

Kalicia is bursting with ideas for making the teachers her focus and putting her creativity and generosity to work for them. A potluck winter gathering became an after-school pajama party,  with matching pajamas provided by Kalicia. The event was fun and a bonding opportunity. It showcased Kalicia’s goal as a director.  “I aspire to become the kind of director I wished for as a teacher – someone who goes beyond supervising to be a coach, mentor, and even a therapist for my staff, providing the support and guidance they need to thrive.”