How Drew Minaker Stepped Into the “Courage Zone”
| by Alex Skov
“At my school, we talk about the ‘courage zone’ and the ‘comfort zone,’ and I think lots of people can get stuck in the comfort zone, hanging out in their restrictive bubbles or in their language group,” Drew Minaker said. “When you’re when you’re living in another country, it’s like you have this great opportunity to engage, to really go into your courage zone and to learn something new and try new things.”
Minaker is no stranger to trying new things. An instrumental music teacher with over a decade of experience, his entire career has been defined by stepping out of the comfort zone.
Discovering an Early Passion for Education
Minaker’s journey to becoming a teacher didn’t begin in a traditional classroom.
“My biggest niche in junior high and high school was playing saxophone,” he shared. “I had a band. It was a jazz group. I was the only teenager with middle-aged guys, and we would play restaurants and jazz clubs.”
It was an experience that helped Minaker level up his skills and musicianship at a rapid pace, something he translated into what he calls his “first real leadership opportunity.”
“I was a section leader and sort of a coach to younger students when I was in high school [band]. That gave me a taste of teaching and I enjoyed it,” he said. “I enjoyed the relationship, the interaction, so that’s what inspired me ultimately to pursue a teaching degree rather than a performance degree.”
Building a Professional Foundation
To turn his passion into a career, Minaker attended Central Washington University, an institution known for its strong music education program. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he spent his first three years teaching in Washington state, learning the ins and outs of real-life classroom management, developing his instructional techniques, and realizing the unique rewards that come from working with students who are fully bought into a lesson.
“It’s such a cool flow state you get into when you’re just in it with the students, especially in the music capacity, just like we’re producing this thing of beauty together,” Minaker said excitedly. “It’s the teamwork that goes into it and then just the release of all the hard work when they put it out on stage and get to celebrate their learning publicly with an audience.”
Working hard to pay off his college loans, he gained the practical experience necessary to become a confident, effective educator before joining an organization alongside his wife where they taught English to college students in the Indonesian province of Central Java.
Transitioning from the Pacific Northwest to the bustling, tropical city of Yogyakarta, Minaker found himself exploring new territory once again.
“It was like just being transplanted into this totally different environment. It was such a bustling town. Yogyakarta has over 70 universities, [so] it’s like this ultimate college town for them,” Minaker noted. “There’s so many young people doing so many creative things…and I discovered the jazz community there. Being able to just play music across the language divide and join a community felt like this authentic experience of engaging with and plugging into another culture.”
It was “a huge learning experience” that inspired Minaker and reinforced his belief in the power of music as a great connector while also sparking a passion for living an international lifestyle.
This inspiration led Minaker to accept a position at the American Cooperative School of Tunis.
Growing Professionally with Master’s Degrees
“My first master’s degree is in ethnomusicology and that degree went hand-in-glove with my leap to overseas teaching where it was more focused on the international side, the cross-cultural side, specifically with music,” Minaker said. “I was in Tunisia at the time learning about Tunisian music and applying those methods in my classroom. It also got my head into the social sciences sides of things, just thinking about culture on a more analytic level, and that was definitely professionally advancing in terms of myself as a musician and my work as a music teacher.”
Minaker was also beginning to explore leadership opportunities once again. He served as a grade-level lead and coordinated advisory programs that found him traveling with students for multiple nights within Tunisia as part of the school’s “Week Without Walls” program. He also spent two years as the elected faculty representative to the local school board, attending every meeting, sitting on board and faculty committees, and serving on a search committee responsible for finding a new head of school.
“Those two years doing that — where you’re thinking more at the 30,000-foot level of what a school is and how it operates and how everything filters through mission, budgeting, and communicating — it was big exposure for me,” Minaker remembered. “I had a lot of encouragement throughout those years doing different things.”
Much of that encouragement came from colleagues who recognized his leadership potential and suggested that he earn more formal training in education leadership if he wanted to pursue that career trajectory.
That’s what led Minaker to enroll in Moreland University’s Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership program.
Balancing comprehensive coursework from the online program with a full-time teaching job and raising a toddler was no small feat. Recognizing the constraints of his schedule, Minaker frequently woke up at 3 a.m. to complete assignments before his workday began. It’s a habit he was able to adapt thanks in part to his detail-oriented personality.
“At my very first school, they used the Gallup [CliftonStrengths] finder and one of my top five strengths was ‘maximizer,’ and I definitely maximize on my work and I can go overboard on assignments and things like that,” Minaker noted, “so I’m still myself learning how to not get bogged down on details. That’s feedback I got on my modules through Moreland.”
The idea of being more balanced was the exact feedback he needed as the curriculum pushed him to think critically about educational technology, mission-driven leadership, and the true purpose of student learning. The program’s weekly video calls with his cohort kept him accountable and connected him with peers facing similar challenges, as well, helping him keep everything in perspective.
A Rewarding Career and a “Unique Vantage Point”
Having recently completed his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership, Minaker now holds the credentials and confidence to step into an administrative role whenever the right door opens. For now, though, Minaker is happy to be teaching band for grades six through twelve at the American International School of Muscat in Oman — a role he’s thrived in since 2024, and one that allows him to teach and interact with the same students from their first day of middle school all the way through their high school graduation.
“I have this unique vantage point of seeing the longitudinal cycle of a learner, which is interesting to think about for educational leadership,” Minaker said. “I think you [realize] contexts are different — every learner has their own context and every school has its own context — so that’s probably what’s the biggest difference between the U.S. and international schools.”
While he notes that resources and supports for teachers are significant differences, too, Minaker says there is one common theme no matter the school.
“Kids are pretty much the same anywhere you go.”
And providing a consistent, supportive presence for students is right in Drew Minaker’s comfort zone.
Ready to step into the “courage zone” and grow your education career? Moreland is here to support you with 100% online 9-month TEACH-NOW Teacher Certificate Preparation Program and 12-month master’s degree programs. Complete your free application now (it takes less than 15 minutes) and you’ll hear back within two business days.
