Born and raised in Michigan, Matthew Nolan ’19 recently returned to his hometown to take up a teaching post at Hillsdale Academy. 

After three years of teaching in Austin, Texas, the former biology and philosophy major will be teaching sixth-grade English.

“When I got the chance to come back home, be around family and in the town I grew up in and teach at an awesome school, I knew it was the right choice,” Nolan said. 

Nolan spent his childhood in Hillsdale, attending and graduating from the local public high school. He went on to receive bachelor of science degrees in both biology and philosophy from Hillsdale College. But that’s not all he did at Hillsdale.

“I was a busy person,” Nolan said. “I played the trumpet in the jazz bands, combos, and orchestra.” 

Nolan also volunteered in youth ministry at his church, St. Anthony Catholic Church, and worked at Rough Draft when it first opened.

“I was one of the inaugural employees at Rough Draft. I worked there for about two and a half years,” Nolan said.

Nathan Schlueter, professor of philosophy and religion, taught Nolan while he was a student at Hillsdale. Schlueter was thrilled to hear Nolan was returning to the community to teach.

“Matt is a man in full: a public school kid with a great conversion story who is equally at home in the natural sciences and the humanities and plays a mean jazz trumpet to boot. What’s there not to like? We’re very lucky to have him back,” Schlueter said.

Following his graduation from Hillsdale College, Nolan unexpectedly decided to take a job teaching science and math.

“It was very happenstance,” he said. “I was planning on going to seminary after graduating and discerned that was not the future, so here I was with these degrees right after graduation and no job prospects.”

After deciding to pursue teaching, Nolan reached out to Founders Classical Academy in Austin, Texas.

“A phone interview led to me being offered a job a week later and moving across the country a month later,” he said.

Nolan’s time teaching in Austin allowed him to better appreciate living in Hillsdale.

“Hillsdale is all about the people,” Nolan said. “I think that’s my favorite part about living in a small town is that, for better or worse, you are recognizable to everyone. Having that familiarity and understanding that you are a part of it, that you will be noticed. Knowing that you are ingrained into a community is a cool thing.”

Nolan brings much energy to his classroom, where he will spend the year teaching 22 students, a much smaller class than he has been used to teaching the last few years.

“I have no doubt he will make a great impact in the classroom and our school at large,” said Mike Roberts, headmaster of Hillsdale Academy. “His enthusiasm for teaching and joy in learning will serve him well as our sixth grade teacher.”

Nolan also takes that energy to the soccer field, where he is helping to coach the Academy’s high school team.

He most enjoys teaching sixth graders because they still have a genuine love for school and learning.

“They’re always curious and asking questions. They’re kind of starting to figure out how to do life. Not successfully all the time, but that’s okay because they’re just venturing out,” Nolan said. “It’s cool to work with kids who are still curious and funny and trying to be people coming alongside them to do that is a very, very fun thing.”