Catholic trade school in southern CA forms, educates the whole person

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.

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 also 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 CWR 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 since, 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.

CWR: You started with five young men in September?

Mark Padilla: Yes, and we’ll have a second cohort in January, with room for 15 men.  But they have to be the right fit; we have a selective criteria.  They have to have the discipline to get up every day at 5:30 a.m., work hard, and follow a schedule.  It is different from what many of our young people experience today.

Our first four weeks is an orientation, which includes going to the kitchen to prepare one’s own meals which they eat with other students, and showing up on time at the work site with tools ready to work.  We have a full team of tradesmen on site because of our ongoing building, so we have plenty of skilled workers to serve as teachers.

Students work with our tradesmen for four hours in the morning.  This first group is working on a rudimentary project, constructing a chicken hatchery for the farm.  They are also helping build the campus where they are living, including 15 rooms for the next 15 students.  We have professionals who come in to work with them, such as electrical contractors and plumbers.

Our student-to-teacher ratio will be below 5:1, so our students will receive the personal attention they need.

They then break for chapel at lunchtime, which includes the Angelus and Mass.  Our chaplain is Fr. Glenn Baaten, a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.  He is a former Anglican priest, who is married with two adult children.  He also had to work in the construction industry to help support his family, so he has experience with the trades.  He was assigned to the center by our bishop, Bishop Kevin Vann.  The bishop oversees our facility to ensure that we maintain our Catholic identity, as well as providing us with the priests we need so that we can make available the sacraments.

Students then have philosophy and theology classes in the afternoon.  Brandon Miraz is our dean of formation.  He was a seminarian for six years, including with our local Norbertines, and opted not to proceed to the priesthood.  He also works in the morning in construction, and comes in the afternoon to teach.

Then there is dinner, socializing, and lights out.

CWR: What are the activities of the Santiago Retreat Center itself?

Mark Padilla: We are currently doing confirmation retreats, serving about two or three parishes a week.  Friday through Sunday we’re particularly active.  We’re also doing retreats for elementary and high school students.  We’re home to the Shroud Center of Southern California, which offers a presentation on the Shroud of Turin, which many believe to be the burial cloth of Christ, so that is used in our programs.

We got our start about 25 years ago, when a group of Catholic men were building a house on our site, which at the time was a poorly maintained RV park.  They thought, “If we can buy this RV park, it would make a great site for a Catholic retreat center.”

Today, we’re a 501c3, independent of any diocese or religious order.  We have facilities large enough to do three retreats simultaneously.  Our facilities are in demand, and we’re sold out for the entire year, so we want to add two more retreat areas and an additional 400 beds so we can serve more parishes.  In the four dioceses of Southern California we serve, there are 600 parishes within a two-hour drive of our center.

We also welcome marriage encounters, summer and science camps, and have a missionary disciple program.

CWR: What are your hopes for the Santiago Trade School?

Mark Padilla: We want it to be a program that forms the whole person, both spiritually with a well-formed interior life, and with marketable skills in general construction, mechanical technology and agricultural management.

Our graduates will then be able to go out into the world of work and earn a good living with which they can support a family.  We’ll have four cohorts of 15 men annually, so that translates into 60 young men going out into the world and making a positive impact.

It is a unique program, and certainly arduous—but it’s not for the weak!  It’s a regimented life, contrary to the current culture, but one which I believe our participants will find rewarding.