The start of a new school year often means new faces coming into the building.  One of these faces new to Yutan this year is the new activities director, assistant principal and transportation director, Alex Nielsen, who is excited to be a part of Yutan and its glory.

“When I had interviewed here, I was really excited by how excited the staff and the students were of the school, that I could really feel a sense of pride,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen is familiar with the small-town energy, having grown up in Minden, Neb., a town of about 3,000 people. Growing up, he helped on his family’s farm, spending much of his time working with animals as well as participating in various activities at his high school.

“I did virtually every activity that my school had to offer. I loved being at school. I didn’t really like being at home, so I liked being at school with my friends and being as involved as I could,” Nielsen said. 

Nielsen then went to college at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, but teaching was not his original plan.

“My original plan was to be a civil engineer. That was going okay, but I kind of thought I didn’t really want to be in an office all the time, didn’t want to be stuck at a computer. I really wanted to be a little more active,” Nielsen said.

That’s when the idea of teaching came to Nielsen.

“My family had been kind of related in education. My mom was a teacher, so I thought maybe I would teach. I was interested in science, so I changed my career path at that point and went into education,” Nielsen said.

After graduation, Nielsen got a job as a science teacher at Platteview High School. Within a couple of years, he started taking on more administrative roles.

“I branched out, did all my transportation stuff, but then took on some attendance, led our success team and a little more assistant principal roles, then assisted with AD duties as needed,” Nielsen said.

After six years at Platteview, Nielsen was ready to pursue administration full-time, and he was drawn to Yutan because of its size.

“One of the things that really excited me about Yutan was getting back into a smaller school,” Nielsen said. “Platteview was about two and a half times the size, like student body-wise, of Yutan, so it didn’t quite have the same small-town feel. So that was something that kind of drove me to look for a smaller school.” 

As a full-time activities director, Nielsen’s schedule is a lot more flexible than it was at his previous job, but so far, he’s still figuring things out.

“My job at this point has been a lot of learning, a lot of getting communication with other athletic directors for events, trying to make sure that I have workers lined up, have officials lined up. Those are the things that are more consistent, just making sure that our events run smoothly,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen hopes to put his communication skills to work throughout the year, something he believes is a strength of his. 

“I spend more time talking to adults and students and communicating either through email or in person, or over the phone a lot, in this position,” Nielsen said.

Another thing the position requires is coordination of all Yutan’s activities, which means a lot of late nights away from his wife, Allie, and 13-month-old son, Auggie. 

“I will have been at the school until about at least 7 or 8 p.m. every day but Wednesday (most weeks). So it’ll be just some long days away from my wife and the little man,” Nielsen said.

Despite this challenge, Nielsen has big plans for the long term. 

“I would kind of like to institute some consistent policies that are used across the activities program. I’d like to put my own little flavor on certain things, build up fundraising and sponsorship opportunities for our activities,” Nielsen said. “There are only certain things that I can control, but those are kind of long-term things that I would like to see, where we could maybe update some facilities, to modernize some things and just provide better facilities and amenities for our students.”

Overall, Nielsen is keeping a positive growth mindset for this new year.

“Every day is a new challenge. Every day is a learning experience,” Nielsen said. “So [my goal is] keep my head above water and have fun.”