Orange County’s Santiago Retreat Center, a 500-acre site offering retreats to Southern California’s four Catholic dioceses, has launched the Santiago Trade School, near Silverado, 19 miles east of Santa Ana.
The program offers participants an introduction to construction trades and basic formation in the Catholic Faith. Its inaugural class began with five students in September, with a second session opening to an additional 15 students in January 2024.
Students of the two-year program will be introduced to all the trade skills necessary to build a home. They work on projects at the retreat center itself and receive spiritual formation, which includes daily Mass and the study of classic works of philosophy and theology. The daily schedule begins with morning prayer in the retreat center’s chapel, followed by breakfast and work at the center. Mass and lunch are followed by study, dinner and evening prayer, with time for socializing in the evening, followed by lights out at 11 p.m.
The goal of the program is to form good Catholics with job skills in demand in the construction industry. Tuition is $28,000 per year.
Mark Padilla, executive director for the Santiago Retreat Center, spoke with Catholic World Report about the new Santiago Trade School.
CWR: How did the idea for the Santiago Trade School develop?
Mark Padilla: The idea came from Chris Weir, executive director of the Camino Schools, who has had an extensive background in classical education and advises us. He asked: what do you think about a Catholic trade school for post-secondary young men? We’re a 500-bed facility permitted for another 2,000 beds, and as we attempt to meet the needs of the local church, we always have construction going on. We can see that the trades are screaming for quality employees.
And, not only can we offer an introduction to the trades, as a Catholic facility we can teach the human formation aspect. We can offer our students daily Mass, prayer, study of classic works and opportunities for confession. Participants can get hands-on experience with general construction in the morning, and then we can teach them the fundamentals of philosophy and theology in the afternoon.
On-site we have heavy machine equipment, they can learn welding and machine maintenance, and we even have a farm and ranch, so they can learn about caring for cattle, goats, turkeys, chicken, quail and bees as well as crops. With the set schedule we can offer, they’ll have a good rhythm of life.
We looked at two other such schools in other parts of the country, including St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, Ohio, and Harmel Academy of the Trades in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Since we’re in Southern California, and construction goes on throughout the year, a general construction program made sense, and we developed the program so that in two years students learn everything that goes into building a house. And, with our philosophy and theology program, they learn how to manage what goes on inside that house.
Once they leave our school our graduates can be accepted into apprentice programs, which will be able to provide them with a living wage which will enable them to support a family….
By Jim Graves, author of Cal Catholic’s Churches worth driving to
Full story published in Catholic World Report
Tuition is $28,000 per year? Words fail.
Yeah, kind of defeats the purpose when it’s nearly as expensive or more expensive than a regular college.
Kids out of high school should just apprentice with a master tradesman to learn the skills, then eventually they’ll know enough to be paid well for their work.
I take back my comment that this is the best thing to happen to Catholic education in a long time. The cost changed my mind.
SouthCoast, do words fail because it’s, in your opinion, too high or too low?
And, that is for tuition, room and board and more. That’s very much less than private colleges. (And, they offer work study to offset some of the expense.)
Truth is, these young men need to eat and have a roof over their heads, as do their instructors. This school is not funded with our tax dollars, as are many that oppose our Catholic Christian values. If you have a better idea of how to help Catholic young people, go for it. I wish you success. And, this is to be commended as well.
Saint Joseph the Worker, pray for them.
This is one of the best things to happen in Catholic education in a long time. College is a waste of time and money. Learn a trade. You’ll be able to provide for yourself and your family handily. Nobody knows how to do things anymore, so they have to pay the few tradesmen who do know how to do them. I know a plumber who told me that a lot of people call him to fix clogs they could undo themselves with a plunger.
What a great gift to the Church and the world.
Based on the first comment about the cost of tuition, more like what a great “grift” to the Church and the world.
Wow! That’s a harsh charge to make publicly. Do you have any evidence of any swindle? If you do, please share it. If you don’t, please examine your conscience about what you share about other brothers and sisters. I’ll follow the Saints and interpret what is being said about this school in the best possible light. If evidence comes forth about your accusation, I’ll change my opinion of this new school. Compare it with the cost of other schools. Only government, tax-funded colleges, with their agendas, are less expensive. In the meantime, let’s pray that many young Catholics are prepared to work in the world, while living life, and raising families, in Christ.
Seeing how often colleges and universities have become indoctrination centers hostile to Christianity and this at a very high price tag, I suppose $28,000 per year tuition is a relative bargain. As the schedule includes daily Mass, theology classes, prayer and lights out at 11:00 p.m., there is the additional charge for room and board. I would think much of the training could be accomplished much cheaper at a community college. But it sounds like a very good mixture of prayer and work-education. St. Benedict would be proud, even if none of these become monks. Such spiritual development is sorely needed, and I hope many take advantage of this opportunity.
Room and board is included. And, who knows, some of these men may have vocations as priests and/or Religious. From the school:
TUITION AND COSTS
$28,000 per year
(two years to graduation)
Includes Room, Board, Tuition
Additional Fees and Costs
Equipment and Tools
Work Uniforms and Safety Equipment
Health Insurance – Market Rate
Workers Compensation Insurance : CA State Rate
College is not a waste of money if you want a college education. Going to college might be a poor choice if you want to learn a trade. One of the mistakes our education system made a number of years ago was to assume that all should go to college. Universities are hotbeds of innovation and research. Imagine what the world would be like if it were not for universities since the time, oh way back when. When you send your child to university you hope they will come back better educated than you are, that they will learn new things, that they will question everything, that they will think for themselves. You don’t send your kids to university to learn what you learned. We would still be in the Stone Age if we had done that over the years. Yes, most universities and colleges tend to be much more liberal than in the past. That is because they have learned new things to apply to the new world we create each day. But, that being said, we should do what we can to get real trade education back into the schools. We are wasting too many of our students by not providing them with the chance to learn a vocation. But keep in mind, that vocational training now includes computer science, coding, dancing and other performing arts, visual arts, as well as carpentry and other traditional trades.
Do they teach how to repair freeway overpasses damaged by a raging inferno? That skill set is needed in Los Angeles right now.
Do they teach how to repair a Church that is crumbling?
They must build on Christ, the only rock-solid eternal foundation.