About the Author
Elizabeth Dore, Ed.D. recently retired from Radford University as a full professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership and Coordinator of the Middle Level Teacher Education Program where she served for almost 24 years after teaching middle school in Maine and at the college level in Colorado while earning a Doctor of Education degree. Dr. Dore has written and presented extensively on her research interests including transracially adopted young adolescents, multicultural education, reading and young adolescents, middle school instructional strategies, sexual harassment in middle schools, middle school curriculum development and co-teaching with content area special education pre-service teachers. Her service to the education community is ample evidence of her own work as a CHANGEMAKER for a better world. It is a great honor to include her voice as a Guest Author to our Blue Roads Changemaker series.
Dr. Darren Minarik was interviewed about his change-making work using the Blue Roads Changemaker Framework: Homegrown Solutions for a Patchwork World. I first met Darren in the School of Teaching and Educational Leadership in 2008. Darren was teaching special education courses and also had experience in social studies education. Specifically, Darren taught an introduction to special education course specially tailored for students preparing to teach social studies in grades 6 through 12. Darren was a good fit for this course because he taught high school social studies and also had a background in special education. In addition to this course, Darren made efforts to create more collaborative opportunities between the teacher preparation programs in special education, middle level education, and secondary education. I worked with Darren in a co-teaching program whereby special education student teachers co-taught with middle level teacher education student teachers. He also came to my middle school classes and informed my pre-teaching students more about the special education program and how to better collaborate with special educators to improve inclusive educational opportunities for students with disabilities.
Homegrown Darren
Darren is a child of many states.
He was born in Chicago, Ill. His father was a corporate businessman moving up the corporate ladder. By age four, Darren was living in Kansas City, Kansas, and then his family moved to Baton Rouge, LA, when he entered first grade. Before Darren’s 5th grade year, his family moved to Westlake Village, California, a suburb north of Los Angeles. He lived there until he was a freshman in high school and then his family moved to Atlanta, GA, and stayed there until his college years at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.
When asked who his people were, Darren mentioned two high school social studies teachers in particular. Andy Rice who taught Model United Nations and local history classes got Darren interested in teaching. Pat Guillory was the nicest teacher he ever had in high school. She taught a number of history classes and was tough but fair. She taught Darren to love social studies and it became Darren’s favorite subject. Another influential teacher he had in high school was the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) teacher, Lynette Steine. She was a huge influence in his life. She was able to motivate her students to go beyond the requirements of the marketing courses by letting her students always know how much she believed in their abilities. She shared a poem with Darren called “I Believe in You” by Joleen Fox that referenced having determination to accomplish anything in life.
Darren competed in the DECA district, state and national civic consciousness competitions. They used marketing skills learned in Mrs. Steine’s classes to support the Humane Society in Atlanta, Georgia, and developed a campaign to spay and neuter pets which included putting posters on the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) buses and rail cars. They also worked in area shelters as volunteers, made contacts with local pet stores to collect donations, and developed working relationships with members of the state legislature and their 4th district congressional representative. Darren was involved in press opportunities with these local officials and the experience heightened his interest in politics, citizenship education, and the possibility of a career in a field that would allow him to have a societal impact. Although Darren was initially interested in a career as a veterinarian, he eventually switched degrees and studied political science at Auburn University because of this experience. He decided he wanted to be a teacher, so he continued on for an additional year in graduate school, completing a Masters of Education in Secondary Social Studies.
Members of Darren’s family were also teachers or worked in schools, including a cousin and two of his aunts. They had a passion for working with children which Darren appreciated. However, Darren never really felt a significant desire to teach because of his family. His parents always supported his interests, regardless of the career direction they took. Darren has an older brother who became a graphic artist and small business owner. He was always very supportive of Darren even though they are separated in age by six years. Darren is a Generation X and his brother is a BOOMER.
Solution-Focused Darren
Darren said the people in his life steered him in the direction he is in today – his choice to be a teacher who works in both social studies and special education.
While at Auburn, he took a required special education course as part of his master’s degree and enjoyed the experience. His professor had a grant to help the town of Auburn become compliant in the newly passed ADA (American's with Disabilities Act) law. Darren participated in helping local businesses become more accessible.
When he graduated from Auburn University, he became a substitute teacher in Atlanta while applying for jobs. His first teaching position was in Washington, DC, with the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit civic education organization that brought students to Washington, D.C. to learn about history and government. He first learned about Close Up while student teaching. His cooperating teacher used a small grant from Close Up to bring students to local government locations like the town council, the courts, and a local jail.
When Darren saw an advertisement in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution newspaper, he applied for the job as Program Instructor and then accepted the position and moved to Washington, DC. This opened a lot of opportunities. Close Up had an educational program for students who were deaf and attended state schools for the deaf around the country. Darren was an instructor for this program and it sparked an interest in special education. He then started working at a Lab School of Washington, a school for students with learning disabilities. He served as a tutor and also supported their summer programs. His experience in DC really did shape him. He continued to work with Close Up as an educational trainer. Through a grant from the Milken Family Foundation, Darren and other Close Up instructors taught middle school social studies, geography, and civics for a year at Frederick Douglas Junior High School in southeast Washington, DC. He also met his future wife while working at Close Up, and she eventually became a special education teacher.
Darren's Patchwork
Darren’s biggest passion became social studies and special education – all because of his background. Inclusive education became a big part of his training and belief system along with the concept of self-determination for people with disabilities.
Self-determination was the bridge for Darren between his love for civic education and his interest in teaching students with disabilities. For Darren, self-determination is civic education for people who have disabilities.
When Darren moved to Southwest Virginia, he taught at Pulaski County High School for six years and then became part of the Virginia Department of Education’s (VDOE) Training and Technical Assistance Center (TTAC) at Radford University (RU) for four years. While at TTAC, Darren worked on a new statewide project called “I’m Determined” that was designed to empower youth with disabilities to lead more self-determined lives.
To get the youth really involved, VDOE asked Darren to organize a youth summit in Roanoke to create youth leaders in Virginia. Darren worked with these youth and had the opportunity to get to know them on a personal level. They created goals they wanted to set for the next year. One goal was the creation of a Youth Credo video they filmed and shared at the next Youth Summit held in Norfolk, Virginia.
Each spring the Youth Summit grew and the VDOE was looking for more opportunities to develop youth leaders. In 2005, Darren became a partner in an organization in Washington, DC called the American Civics Center (ACC). The ACC partnered with the VDOE to develop some Washington DC Youth Leadership summits starting in 2010. The ACC sponsored four I’m Determined events in Washington, D.C.
Darren hoped the summit would grow and create a new generation of leaders.
The I’m Determined Project and the Youth Summits are projects Darren he is very proud of as one of the early coordinators of these state initiatives.
Darren has presented locally, nationally, and internationally.
In 2019, he presented in Saudi Arabia and shared the Youth Credo and the importance of self-determination for students with developmental disabilities.
While still working at TTAC in 2008, Darren was invited by the organization Legacy International as a guest speaker for a U.S. State Department grant that involved sharing ideas to support civic education, disability rights, and self-determination in the countries of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
Darren regularly presents at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Annual Conference on a variety of disability and civic education topics.
Darren has worked among many people with disabilities who have impacted his life and career. They have shaped him and challenged the perceptions and stereotypes we all place on people with disabilities from time-to-time. The earliest impacts involved his work at Auburn when he had the opportunity to support an adult with a developmental disability who was living independently. Darren met with him weekly, became his friend, and also supported his independence by teaching him how to take care of an apartment. They hung out, talked about music, and shared stories about their lives. Darren learned how important it was to get to know the individual and not make assumptions based on a disability label. Early in his work with TTAC, he was invited to attend a luncheon event sponsored by the Youth Leadership Forum, a leadership program for students with disabilities. During the luncheon, the students were encouraged to mingle and network with the invited guests. A young woman at the event was determined to find Darren and talk with him because she heard he had taught World History. She wanted to share her passion for World History and the portfolio of her work from the class she was taking. Darren was told before the luncheon the girl wanted to meet him and she had Down Syndrome.
Darren remembers when her disability was shared with him prior to the luncheon, he immediately had a perception of her intellectual ability that reflected someone who could not learn World History very well. However, when she talked to Darren, she challenged that negative perception in his mind he had about students with intellectual disabilities and their ability to learn challenging content. She shared her SOL test score, a 504, advanced proficiency. This was the first time Darren learned the importance of presuming competence as an educator and setting high expectations for all students regardless of disability labels. She was a Changemaker for Darren.
Darren has worked among many people who have impacted his life and career. They have shaped him and challenged the perception and stereotypes we all place on people with disabilities from time to time. The earliest impacts involved his work at Auburn when he had the opportunity to support an adult with a developmental disability with disabilities helps him become a stronger change agent because it makes him a better advocate, highlighting the strengths and positive impacts people with disabilities have in the world.
Darren also does a lot work in Washington, DC through his organization, the American Civics Center, where they partner with other organizations to support State Department student exchanges including the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program, American Serbia and Montenegro Youth Leadership Exchange (A-SMYLE), Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES), Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) and the Iraqi Youth Leadership Exchange Program (IYLEP).
These students from around the world spend a year in the United States and a number of them are invited to Washington, DC for a special leadership week where they learn how the U.S. government works and develop skills in grassroots community engagement.
CHANGEMAKER DARREN
Darren shared he still makes assumptions sometimes about people with disabilities and that is a natural part of who we are. He says we live in an ableist society, so it is only natural biases exist, even among people who have disabilities. However, this doesn’t mean we cannot learn and improve how we perceive and understand disability. Darren describes a friend who is a wheelchair user and his friend once complained about the rumble strips on curb cuts making his wheelchair shake, He didn’t understand why they existed and blamed the strips on someone who is not familiar with wheelchairs. Darren explained the strips and bumps are designed to support people with visual impairments who rely on those sensory cues.
Darren thinks working with a wide variety of people with disabilities helps him become a stronger change agent because it makes him a better advocate, highlighting the strengths and positive impacts people with disabilities have in the world.
Darren maintains communication with a number of former students who participated in the I’m Determined youth summits who are now adults in their late 20’s and early 30’s. One young man Darren keeps in touch with has had a very successful life. He holds a full-time job, drives, lives independently with a roommate, and participates in sports like softball, where he competed at the national level. He was also a torchbearer for the Virginia Special Olympics. Darren keeps in touch with many other former I’m Determined students who are now married with families, run their own small businesses, and some who decided to become teachers! These are all important stories of success – young people developing self-determination and leadership skills as teens, then making changes in their own lives and in the world later in life – his biggest influence from the starting point.
Take a look at the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals above. It is quite easy to find Darren's change-making work in #4 – Quality Education, #10 – Reduced Inequalities, #16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and #17 – Partnerships for the Goals. What else do you see? Get in touch and let us know!
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Elizabeth Dore, Ed.D. recently retired from Radford University as a full professor in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership and Coordinator of the Middle Level Teacher Education Program where she served for almost 24 years after teaching middle school in Maine and at the college level in Colorado while earning a Doctor of Education degree. Dr. Dore has written and presented extensively on her research interests including transracially adopted young adolescents, multicultural education, reading and young adolescents, middle school instructional strategies, sexual harassment in middle schools, middle school curriculum development and co-teaching with content area special education pre-service teachers. Her service to the education community is ample evidence of her own work as a CHANGEMAKER for a better world. It is a great honor to include her voice as a Guest Author to our Blue Roads Changemaker series.
