Student Spotlight: Nolan Deer
Writer / Matt Keating
Photography Provided
Nolan Deer, a Noblesville High School Student of the Month, believes the valuable training he received at school has paid off. He says it facilitated his entrance into the workforce at an early age.
“I graduated from Noblesville High school in 2023 and have been working/learning at a construction job for a year now,” he says.
The icing on the cake is that Deer enjoys the work he’s doing.
“I’m working for Design & Build Electrical Engineering and Contractors as an apprentice electrician,” Deer says. “I got this job through Noblesville High School. Through a school program, I was able to learn at the ABC Prep Academy. I started my junior year at the ABC Prep Academy.”
Deer notes that the training he received was invaluable. “I learned my basic construction safety and tasks at the Prep Academy,” he says. “I would go to school finishing my junior year and graduating from the Prep Academy. I also chose to take on year two of the program.”
He took the ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors) of Indiana/Kentucky courses his senior year, and the Year Two option of the program.
“It was a night class once a week,” Deer says. “I was able to work and go to school during my senior year at the same time. I would go to school on certain days and learn English, government, economics, and management fundamentals. On other days I would work a full eight hours at Design & Build, and learn the trade I will be in for the rest of my life.”
Deer enjoyed his schedule. “I liked this form of learning because I was working with my hands,” he says. “I got paid to do it my senior year and I got to leave school early.”
Deer considers himself lucky because he is getting to do something that he will have a strong interest in for a long time.
“My dream is to pursue an electrical career and become a top figure in the company I work for, or to work for myself as an hbd licensed electrician,” Deer says.
Deer’s busy work schedule kept him busy, and he says an injury kept him out of extracurricular activities.
“I didn’t participate in any high school activities due to my knee injury,” he says. “In middle school, though, I ran track and cross-country, and played the double bass in the orchestra. I only played my sixth-grade year though.”
Deer believes Noblesville High School is a great school.
“I like Noblesville High School because it gave me the option to learn and work the trade I am in today,” he says. “It’s the only school I know where I can make money and go to school. It gave me two years of construction experience before I even graduated from high school. I was the only 17-year-old kid who had two jobs where I worked 35 to 40 hours a week. I also went to two different schools. I went to a night class once a week and the normal high school every other day, all at the same time.”
