La Center teen headed to West Point

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Erin Nolan can still remember the day her son, Sean, called to tell her that his ACT college readiness exam scores had come in.

“He told me his score was 34, and I asked him, ‘Oh, is that good?’” Erin says, smiling at her 17-year-old son. “He said he didn’t know.”

Like any curious mother, Erin looked it up. That’s when she discovered that her son, always a solid academic student and outstanding athlete, had pretty much hit gold with his test scores.

“It turns out that a 34 is in the top 1 percent in Washington state and in the top 1 percent in the country,” Erin says, shaking her head. “I called him back and said, ‘It’s a good score. Really, really good!’”

Soon after Sean’s test scores came in, the onslaught of mail began. Colleges around the country – incredibly selective, Ivy League-level colleges – tried to impress Sean with their glossy catalogs and promises of academic glory.

But Sean Nolan already knew where he wanted to be. He wanted to be a cadet at the prestigious United States Military Academy at West Point. He’d known it since he was a young boy, barely out of elementary school.

“My goal has always been West Point,” Sean says. “I’ve known that was where I wanted to go since I was in middle school.”

Sean is the son of two law enforcement officers – mother, Erin, is a commander with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and former interim police chief in La Center; and Sean’s father, the late Michael Nolan, who died in 2010 at the age of 49, after a short battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer, also worked as a commander for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. 

Sean has always veered toward a more structured lifestyle. He loves the beauty of math, a subject that always has a correct answer, and says he’s drawn to the regimented nature of the West Point military academy.

“I’m not much of a free spirit,” Sean says, smiling at his mother and little sister, Grace, 13, who accompanied the La Center High School senior to his interview with The Reflector. “I like structure and consistency.”

If there’s a school that’s big on structure and consistency, it’s West Point. The Army-based military academy, located about 50 miles north of New York City on the Hudson River, is considered one of the best liberal arts colleges in the world and, therefore, is extremely tough to get into. Applicants must have high academic scores, pass a rigorous physical exam, have a history of community service and garner a nomination from a member of Congress.

West Point alumni include two U.S. presidents – Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower – Gulf War Commander Norman Schwarzkopf, Rhodes Scholar and Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins and hundreds of notable military and business leaders.



Sean learned about West Point from his aunt, Eileen Nolan, who graduated from West Point’s class of 1989, and visited the military academy during his sophomore year of high school. That’s when he first fell in love with the school. Then, last summer, he attended an introductory, one-week seminar that helps acclimate interested applicants to the daily life of a West Point cadet.

Sean says he started prepping for admission to West Point during his freshman year of high school. He knew he would need to keep his grades high, but he also wanted to take as many extra-tough, Advance Placement courses, especially in mathematics, the subject most dear to his heart.

For the past four years, Sean has been an academic, social and athletic standout at La Center High, lettering in four separate sports – basketball, cross-country, football and soccer – taking advanced math classes; tutoring at the local middle school, where his sister, Grace, attends eighth grade; volunteering on the Clark County Youth Commission; earning badges as a Boy Scout; and being nominated president of his high school’s National Honors Society, vice president of his senior class and treasurer of the La Center High School’s Future Business Leaders of America group.

When he wasn’t studying or playing sports, Sean was earning money as a member of the garbage crew for the Clark County Fair. In his “free” time, he hung out with friends and family and tried to catch up on his sleep.

“He’s such a great kid,” Erin says of her son. “Both of my kids are amazing. They’ve been through so much … losing their dad when they were only 13 and 9 years old. But they’ve made it through and they amaze me. The fact that Sean has been able to accomplish so much at such a young age – I’m just really proud of him.”

Sean says he’s honored to have been recruited by some of the best schools in the world. At home, he has offers from schools like University of California, Berkeley, and is waiting to hear back from Stanford.

“I know that those schools, my ‘back-up schools’ are some people’s dreams, so I’m honored that I had the choice,” Sean says. “But West Point was always my dream school.”

Last month, after sending in reams of paperwork and securing a Congressional nomination from U.S. Representative Jaime Lynn Herrera Beutler, who represents Washington’s 3rd congressional district, Sean learned that his dream had come true – he’d been accepted at West Point.

The La Center senior graduates on June 6 and will head to West Point on June 25. He starts the academy’s infamous “Beast Barracks,” a seven-week basic training process that turns college freshman into military cadets, on June 29.

“It’s not much of a summer,” Sean says, smiling. “But I’m really excited to get started with this new phase of my life.”