The assumption that sophomore boys have no depth to them whatsoever would be only mostly correct. This was glaringly evident to me in my conversation with Bishop Manogue’s own Nolan Yount. He mostly matched my expectations with short responses that he had clearly given little consideration to, but shocked me toward the end of our talk by launching into an informed and impassioned speech about a relevant and controversial global issue that he felt strongly about. To understand how Nolan came to exist in this duality, it is important to lay out some context.
Nolan was born in Reno, Nevada on May 8, 2008 to a family with two loving parents and the most amazing sister anyone could ask for. He describes his early childhood of playing in the local baseball Little League program and being an adventurous child as “pleasant.” He attended Our Lady of the Snows for elementary and middle school which immersed him in a Catholic education from a young age. This Catholic education was continued when he started at Bishop Manogue in the fall of 2022. He talked about how being part of the unique culture of a Catholic school for almost all his life has had an impact on who he is today. His environment was another big part of his upbringing. The Reno Tahoe area has given him a deeper appreciation for the outdoors which he has pursued as a Boy Scout. His involvement with this organization has led him on many adventurers like backpacking trips and some community service. He also credits some of his upbringing to the Reno baseball culture and the many different programs he has been part of over the years.
More recently, Nolan can be found in his few honors and one AP class at Manogue because he is a self-described “academic weapon”. The rest of his typical routine consists of baseball practice after school followed by a nap, dinner, homework, and video games. Nolan can be found screaming at the TV about losing in Fortnite every single night of the week. In his limited free time, he likes to hike, camp, and go to the gym which he does every evening when there is no baseball practice. When asked about a little known fact about him, he responded by admitting that he has a bunch of little random facts floating around in his brain that he typically doesn’t bring up in normal conversations because he says they’re “weird”.
After learning all these somewhat superficial things about Nolan’s life, I wanted to see what things really mattered to him and what opinions he had about the world. He surprised me by launching into a very impassioned soap box about how he believes that nuclear energy is the answer to a sustainable future. He talked about how the world’s power needs can’t be met by other sustainable sources like wind or solar, so an alternative must be implemented. Fossil fuels also can’t meet our power needs for much longer, so a solution like nuclear energy would be a perfect fix to both of these concerns. The main issue people have with nuclear power is the waste it creates and the risk of meltdown. These things can be solved with the use of a different element in the nuclear reaction instead of the usual uranium. According to Nolan, “thorium is two spots over from uranium on the periodic table. It’s also radioactive, and it can be used in fusion reactions the same way uranium is, except for it is much less dangerous because it cannot start the reaction without a helper material like plutonium. So it can’t keep going once you take away the plutonium, making it super easy to stop a meltdown.” This method also produces more power and creates less waste than traditional uranium-based reactions.
Listening to Nolan’s thoughts on this complicated issue made me realize that he is much more informed and capable of critical thinking than his usual “gym bro” attitude would let on. I think Bishop Manogue has yet to see Nolan’s more opinionated side come out, but hopefully he will be more inclined to speak his mind in the future.
