The path San Damiano College for the Trades has sprung from is 150 years in the making.

The school occupies buildings in Springfield, Illinois, opening its doors and representing a hybrid of the Catholic influences that came before it: The Sisters of St. Francis’ commitment to prayer and the Eucharist, the Franciscans’ history of making the trades and sound theology available to all, and the Ursuline zeal for higher education at the associate level.

Twenty-four young men who come from 13 different states have found their way to be the first class of San Damiano and enter into a three-year program where they will not only earn an Associate Degree in a Great Books Liberal Arts curriculum but will emerge as capable, skilled craftsmen in a variety of disciplines ready to take their place in a workforce that desperately needs qualified candidates. One more thing that makes this institution utterly unique: the students will graduate with zero debt. This debt-defying feat will be accomplished by relationships the school has forged with local contractors and builders in the surrounding Springfield area who will take students under their wing, working around their academic schedule and providing employment and on the job training in the trades. The money students earn in this groundbreaking model will provide the tuition and room and board that is usually the barrier to so many potential students.

On a Mission

The school is the dream come to fruition of Kent Lasnoski. A Catholic educator with a doctorate in higher education, Lasnoski felt called to begin a different kind of institution of small “c” college meets capital “C” Catholic identity. His quest was further spurred by observing the growing and concerning trend where fewer young men were going to college and decreasing numbers of those who do attend do not complete their studies. Lasnoski sought a remedy in a model that combined the spiritual with the practical.

That dream intersected with a similar vision of Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, who wanted to offer a college experience that was a deep dive into one’s Catholic faith. The “x” that marked the spot was the storied location in Springfield where a powerful Catholic lineage was lying dormant and needed only a new mission to come back to life.

With undergraduate study in theology, philosophy and the arts, San Damiano is not your average trade school; but for Lasnoski, the combination of earthly practicality with pursuit of the eternal is also something with a long lineage. “Scripture reveals the story of spiritual and literal building, demolition and restoration — of the tabernacle tent and the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple of God, Jerusalem’s walls, and the Israelites themselves as a people, all culminating in the Incarnation.”

Student Interest

The students from various parts of the country, and with their own reasons to attend San Damiano, have been busy in their studies and in putting the finishing touches on their first trade assignment, building their own dresser drawers for their dorm rooms.

Henry Trainor comes from Texas. Having been taught by the Norbertines, who are also handling the spiritual guidance at San Damiano, Trainor learned about this special school where one could be close to the sacraments while at the same time learn a highly desirable skill. Trainor is also discerning a calling to the priesthood and knows with the access to daily Mass and daily devotions he will in time come to understand where he will serve God best.

Alex Hurla is “different” from the other students at the school. He is 29 years old and is part of San Damiano’s first class not because he is a late bloomer but because he is an atypical over-achiever.

As Hurla put it, when someone graduates from high school, they face three choices: going to college, going to work, or going into the military. Hurla did all three.

He has had several jobs; he has an undergraduate and a graduate degree and he is a proud veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. But he was looking for something that combined the “work of the hands and the works of the mind,” he told the Register.

While he was looking at several trade schools, he was also rediscovering his Catholic faith and found the perfect fit at San Damiano.

John Lawless is from Oklahoma and always knew he wanted to go to a small, truly Catholic college. San Damiano’s curriculum will allow him to delve into the wisdom and knowledge of a classical education — and since he has always liked working with his hands, he can hone his carpentry skills into a vocation all its own.

Nathaniel Gabler was so eager to begin his life at San Damiano he left home in Texas months before the school had even opened its doors. He has a strong motivation, as he puts it, to be prepared in every way to be a good Catholic husband, father and provider and truly believes the school will help him build all three of those attributes.

The inaugural class of San Damiano College for the Trades has encouraged Bishop Paprocki, who told the Register, “Our initial enrollment for San Damiano College for the Trades has exceeded expectations, indicating that there is an eagerness not only to learn the trades but also to get a solid foundation in the virtues and values that make for a strong Catholic Christian life.”

And though that may seem like a small number to some, the person the school exists for, a man who also plied His talents in the trades for His day job, started with only 12.