Born in America and a dual US-Australian citizen, Nolan speaks both Swedish and English and has a diverse Jewish background. He strives to lead and inspire change in order to nurture and create a more inclusive environment in the community. Nolan feels particular responsibility in the areas of leadership, cultural appreciation, diversity awareness and innovation driven education.
Nolan contributes to Australian society through leadership. Last year, he was recognised for these achievements through being the sole recipient at his school of the Australian Defence Force Long Tan Youth Leadership and Teamwork Award. Nolan’s leadership contributions began in Year 6 when he joined the primary school Leadership Team. Since then, he has organised a range of events including Harmony Day. These leadership efforts culminated most recently in his election as the Year 12 School Captain where he has begun to implement a number of initiatives to facilitate avenues for student engagement and student voice.
Nolan works to build intercommunity relations.  Being the grandson/great grandson of Holocaust survivors has greatly impacted his interests and worldviews, as has being multilingual and having attended school in four countries. His linguistic and cultural experiences expanded his perspectives on the world and motivate Nolan to help others expand theirs. Nolan been teaching at the local Swedish School for many years, where he assists primary students to learn more about their Swedish background and language. His efforts were recognised last year when Nolan received a Minister’s Award for Excellence in Student Achievement in Community Languages (Highly Commended) for my contributions to the Swedish School.
Nolan’s passion to educate pushes him to pursue creative pathways and broader audiences. For a major STEM project at school, he received funding from Diyode Magazine and is also writing a series of articles for them that chronicle the project. The project is to build and launch a weather balloon and take data and measurements a third of the way to space. Nolan values this opportunity as people all over the community, country and world can take part in, and learn from, my project and journey.
As a young leader, a Jew and as someone who is working hard to promote inclusion and diversity, Nolan is worthy of a Changemaker Award.