As I drove away from Grand Rapids, MI, and headed back home to Akron, OH, the texts began rolling in and continued into the next day from my 19-year-old son. “Already making good friends – guys like me.” “Mass was so beautiful. Love this place.” “Excited for myself. Needed this.” In my son’s fashion, these were, of course, followed by, “Going cliff jumping with the guys Friday.”
We had just enrolled him at Harmel Academy of the Trades. Harmel is a men’s, Catholic, residential trade school that opened in 2020 and is one of several Catholic trade schools that have surfaced recently. These schools seek to teach post-high school graduates in the tradition of Catholic education through study in the trades.
I’m invested in a long career in Catholic schools. Our sons went all through Catholic school Pre-K to high school. Yet, my middle son tested at a young age, very marginally academically. However, his non-verbal (3-dimensional) cognitive skills were at the top of the scale. His skills looked very different from mine. We found him support programs but despite all our efforts, he was a student who did not fit the traditional classroom. He developed his own narrative—that he wasn’t smart; that school wasn’t a place for him. It was a constant struggle growing up. However, following high school, he found a place where he thrived, studying trades at Harmel.
Harmel Academy of the Trades is one of a series of trade schools that has opened in the US over recent years offering instruction in various skilled trades with all the faith formation focus of a vibrant Catholic education. The majority of current US Catholic secondary schools pride themselves on being “college-prep” and successfully direct students to our country’s many wonderful Catholic colleges and universities. However, for those who learn differently, those who struggle with academia or simply don’t want to live life in an office, there have been few to no options for those who want to continue Catholic formation in their education.
The US is experiencing a significant lack of skilled workers in the trade fields. Far more are retiring from these careers than are entering the workforce, so the demand for skilled workers is exceptionally high. Given the high pay, lower schooling costs and shorter periods from training to the field, this line of work provides financial stability for those who choose it.
These new Catholic trade schools offer their own programming, but each offers some similarities. They each have formal instruction in the trades, theological study and a significant focus on personal faith formation. Training is offered in various trades depending on location with programs lasting 2 to 4 years. The programs offer a variety of formal humanities/theology courses that often match the learning style of their students; at Harmel there were no papers, only readings and discussions with vigorous oral defenses. Their humanities courses focused on life as a worker who serves God, a husband who serves God, a father who serves God. (I personally loved the tag-line Harmel had for these courses, “History and philosophy for guys who like to blow stuff up.”) In addition to the formal programs, personal formation also occurs through communal prayer times, Masses, spiritual direction, retreats and wide opportunities for individual prayer. On a side note, my son was so energized by the approach at Harmel that he studied for the single humanities course there more than his combined time studying for every course throughout all of high school.
Just to be clear, my son is an absolute goofball. I love him and he is a knucklehead “guy” through and through. At Harmel, he was surrounded by other guys just like him. They constantly had dirty hands. They laughed at the wrong times. They resurrected go-carts and minibikes that they made too loud and went fast. And for most of them, at some point they had been told that this was a contradiction to being a faith-filled man; that being a goofball guy was far from a life that knows, loves and serves God. However, together they began to understand what the Benedictines (and other orders) knew; that a passionate love of God can have dirty hands and dirty faces.
My son’s classmates were some of the most prayerfully enthusiastic men I’ve had the privilege to meet. Through a series of our family moves to locations with traditional and restored order Confirmation ages, as well as COVID restrictions, my son hadn’t received the sacrament as of 19. Yet the chaplain at the Harmel saw to it that he would prepare him and he would receive the sacrament with Fr. Dominic’s home parish. So, on a Thursday night in April, at the cathedral in Grand Rapids, packed with other parishes, he received his Confirmation. As a sign of prayerful solidarity, his entire class of knucklehead guys from school gave up an entire Thursday night for a 2 ½ hour liturgical service, just to prayerfully support him. They still laughed at the wrong times, had dirty hands and faces (one had just rushed from his shift at a tire shop and threw on the cleanest shirt in his car to make it on time) and it is still one of the most beautiful spiritual expressions I have experienced in my life.
There are several post-secondary Catholic trade schools now operating in the US. Harmel Academy of the Trades opened to students in 2020. While showing enrollment growth during each of its operating years, the school still maintains a very intimate environment between students and staff. Being the first of this wave, their program has had the most opportunity to establish and evolve. For the fall of 2025, young men will be in a three-year program with apprenticeship opportunities in machine systems technology, HVAC, electrical, and welding.
Santiago Trade School, in Silverado, CA, among the Santa Anna Mountains between Long Beach and Palm Springs is located on an amazing Catholic retreat center covering well over 800 acres. Students began at the school in the Fall of 2023. They train young men in multiple trades, including general construction, mechanical technology and agricultural management. The two-year program seeks to engage students in work-study programs during their term at the school to complete the program debt-free, placing students in apprenticeships with companies carrying beyond the program’s completion.
The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, OH, took on its first cohort of students in the Fall of 2024. This four-year program also trains students in carpentry, HVAC, plumbing and electrical. St. Joseph’s is the first of these schools to have students earn a Bachelor of Arts in Catholic studies in a co-educational format. The program places graduates in apprenticeship programs in their hometowns.
Two other programs are in the works for the future. San Damiano College of the Trades in Springfield, IL, is preparing to accept young men in the fall of 2025 for degree and non-degree programs. Kateri College is looking to make its home in New Mexico and will be another in the co-ed format offering a Bachelor of Arts. Kateri is still finalizing plans for its permanent home.
Each of these programs seeks to emphasize the faith formation of their students through prayer, devotion and Catholic formation while educating them in the practical skills and knowledge in critical trades. A void in Catholic education is being filled through the innovative work of faith-filled leaders. I can say for a fact that their labor of love and service to God has made a significant impact on the life of my son.
Jim Kingis owner and lead consultant at Saints and Scholars Consulting.
jimking@saintsandscholarsconsulting.com