New college may combine business skills, liberal arts education
Plans are in the works for a Catholic business school in Springfield, Illinois.
The Illinois Board of Higher Education is presently looking into opening San Damiano College for the Investments in the fall of 2025. Federal funding is not accepted at the school, which is only available to men.
The approaching president, Kent Lasnoski, comes from Wyoming Catholic College. He provided further particulars to The College Fix , via a telephone meeting.
We want to do both points for the students and as an organization. President Lasnoski told The Fix that” we want to display a model that works in the higher education system and can be used abroad.” By teaching the whole people through the liberal art, we hope to help individuals recover the respect of function and to combine that with a life well lived.
The goal is to provide an associate’s degree that includes specialized training, hands-on expertise in deals, and avoids any student loan, according to the college website.
President Lasnoski claims that the goal is to “rebuild my chapel” in accordance with Christ’s words when St. Francis commissioned him to “build my church” by raising a new era of men in the world, either in a private setting or as a priesthood.
According to Lasnoski,” I noticed the need for a regeneration of Christian education in this hall of the west, that needed to be some kind of college to meet the need for renewal in the Catholic ed space and also the financial interest of the midwest from a trade standpoint.”
” Our goal is to pass the acceptance process as quickly as possible,” he said, “hopefully we have an incoming class for drop 2025.”
Another upstart universities have similar objectives to mix trade skills with Christian training, including the College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, Ohio.
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A Catholic organization that supports honest higher learning shared its enthusiasm over these new opportunities.
In an email to The Fix, President Patrick Reilly wrote,” The Cardinal Newman Society is excited about the rise of these trade and technological institutes, which promise loyalty to Catholic teaching, commitment to a liberal arts base, and dedication to the Catholic development of individuals.
He said several schools “are working toward Newman Guide recognition, including San Damiano”.
The college is authentically Catholic in its practices because of Newman Guide recognition.
” We hear from many families wanting this sort of education”, Reilly said.
The difficulty for these colleges is integrating the principles of our Catholic faith throughout the entire curriculum, particularly in science and the manual arts, and avoiding so much specialization that the liberal arts have little time to devote to developing the mind, he said. ” The temptation will be to focus solely on career preparation”.
The new colleges align with the group’s patron, St. John Henry Newman.
The English saint,” strongly advocated Catholic education that embraces all aspects of knowledge, and a college that prepares craftsmen with a balance of skill, knowledge, wisdom, and devotion to God could be a great witness to the integrated life that is expected of every Christian”, Reilly said.
” In today’s world, we tend to compartmentalize our work, home, and church life as entirely separate, but this kind of formation could be a remedy”.
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IMAGE: San Damiano College of the Trades
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