As you can imagine, founding a new educational institution is difficult work.  The old adage “money makes money” is true precisely because most people do not want to “waste” their money on an unproven institution.  

Donors to Kateri College are willing to take a risk along with us in prayerful expectation that this idea will take shape.  We, too, took a significant risk in leaving a secure job and moving our family to Gallup in obedience to a clear calling God gave to us to start a college that is different from the models of higher education our society has been accustomed to for the past century.

We ask donors to consider supporting us because of the intense need for new colleges like Kateri.  The majority of colleges and universities no longer offer an education that is worth the cost of tuition.  Many pose risks to students’ souls in that the curriculum and student life run counter to the Christian life.  The environment for a young man or woman both in and out of the classroom is not conducive to encouraging Christian behavior.  Students are graduating having abandoned a belief in God, deeply in debt, and with few job prospects sufficient to repay it.

Many young people now identify their faith as “none” in polls.  They are called the “None Generation,” and many despair of a prosperous future.  Particularly our young men seem lost and confused and have no motivation to achieve greatness.  Yet, every man and woman has been created by a loving God for a specific purpose.  Saint John Henry Newman writes a prayer, part of which says, “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.”

Kateri College intends to help every student understand the mission for which God has created him or her.  We fundamentally believe that a life of both intellect and practical skills best achieves that happiness that God intends for us.  We will respect our students enough to treat them as young men and young women with the responsibilities that being an adult entail.

Donors to our College will be supporting a new approach to education within an environment that is joyfully and unapologetically Catholic in every aspect of a college student’s life.  

While we welcome non-Catholics and non-Christians, all students must sign a code of ethics that states he or she respects the moral teachings of the Church and will abide by the College rules in the classroom, in the dormitory, in the workshop, and in the community.

Our liberal arts curriculum will teach the best of the great works of Western Civilization.  Our Liberal and Practical Arts faculty must sign an oath of fidelity and will be excellent teachers and Christian examples of adult life.  While being independent of the Diocese of Gallup, as an approved Catholic institution, all of our theology professors must receive the local ordinary’s “mandatum,” and all our chaplains will receive approval from the local ordinary to offer the sacraments.

Such a complete curriculum will enable our students to understand their place in the great story of mankind, to distinguish truth from propaganda, to see the beauty of our natural world, and to recognize the transcendent nature of ourselves and our relationship with the loving God who created all things and who created each of us with a very particular and unique purpose.    

Our students will have hands on practical experience from semester 1.  Over their four years at Kateri, they will earn 60 credits in a practical trade skill and will have the opportunity to work as paid interns with local and national employers.  By the time they graduate, they will be immediately employable in job sectors that already have high demand, with likely higher demand in the future as an expected ten million tradesmen retire within the next decade.

Kateri College will offer an education of inspiration and purpose within an environment that encourages the Christian life.

Does this sound like what you would want for your son, daughter, grandson or granddaughter?  

If yes, please donate to our mission!  Please let others know what we are building in this humble part of the United States.