Meet the Newest Wrangler

Wrangler Drew Beesley is the newest addition to the Northwest Academy middle school staff.

Beesley believes his main job as a wrangler is to connect with the students, while insuring their safety.

“My personal definition of my job is to try to make kids smile and to help [students] feel safe and supported,” Beesley said.

He also has developed a unique way of helping students understand fundamental social skills.

“I talk in riddles and puzzles,” Beesley said. “I find that if people have to figure out stuff on their own, it helps them better understand it.”

Before working as a wrangler at Northwest Academy, Beesley attended Merritt College in Oakland, California, to get his nursing credentials.

During his time there at Merritt College, he worked with the student government as the associate justice.

“I administered the state laws,” Beesley said. “If people weren’t following rules I got to hit a wooden hammer against stuff.”

He then proceeded to work at multiple restaurants, and at a crisis intervention where he interacted with mentally challenged patients.

“If a patient got upset, my job was to intervene and to prevent others from getting hurt,” Beesley said. “One patient threw a brick at me; another tried to hit me with a crutch.”

Beesley has been a resident of many different states in America.

“I’ve lived in Montana, Idaho, Utah, New York and Oregon” Beesley said. “When I was little I lived in military housing in Texas.”

His recollections of Texas are less than fond, though he now looks back at his time there in a humorous light.

“I got paddled for getting in a fight and losing,” he said. “I didn’t like Texas at all.”

He was happy to return to Oregon, and his first impressions of the Northwest Academy middle school are favorable.

“The middle schoolers here are much better behaved than I expected,” Beesley said. “Students that go here just seem a little above average.”

He has had multiple positive interactions with individual students in his first week.

“I came in with a concept of how a middle schooler would act,” Beesley said. “But I’ve had some really interesting conversations with middle schoolers. There’s not much running around and yelling.”

In his free time, Beesley often goes on hikes or cooks. He would like to try his hand at blacksmithing, as he has always enjoyed working with metals.

He was recommended for the job at Northwest Academy by wrangler and longtime friend Lon Nowak. Beesley and Nowak have known each other since sixth grade, and attended middle school together in Bend, Oregon.

“We weren’t friends in elementary school,” Nowak said. “But going into middle school we became close friends and hung out at my house all the time.”

Nowak and Beesley kept in touch after middle school, even when Beesley lived in many different states.

“He was one of those people I’d call up once a year,” Nowak said. “Even after he moved.”

Upon his return to Oregon, Beesley lived with Nowak until he could find a job.

“[Drew] had just gotten done moving across the country and moved up to start living on my couch,” Nowak said. “When he started looking for a job I told him about the wrangling position and he was more than qualified so here he is.”

As an old friend of Beesley, Nowak has additional insight into his personality.

“I like that he’s direct,” Nowak said. “He acts like he’s a bastardly curmudgeon but is actually sweet and caring.”

(Reporting by Ogden Basye and Lizzie Schmidt)