By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-11-19 00:09:28 | Updated at 2024-11-21 12:32:08
2 days ago
CV NEWS FEED // The College of St. Joseph the Worker’s inaugural fundraising gala was a resounding success, raising significant funds and featuring a rousing speech from former Sen. Rick Santorum in support of the college’s mission to reshape higher education and elevate the trades.
The November 15 gala was held at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and drew an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.
Located in Steubenville, Ohio, the College of St. Joseph the Worker opened its doors to its inaugural class this fall, aiming to graduate students who earn both a trade certification and a degree in Catholic studies, while drastically minimizing student debt.
Challenging a false dichotomy
Addressing the packed audience, founder of the College of St. Joseph the Worker Jacob Imam reiterated the call for a much-needed “revolution in higher education,” inviting attendees to join the institution’s mission to restore dignity to both learning and labor.
Imam praised the 31 students that make up their first class, explaining that many of them passed up “phenomenal offers from elite institutions” in order to be a part of the college’s initiative.
“We’re blown away that there were critically minded students that were able to penetrate through the disassembly that our society has long preached: that there is a dichotomy between those who are meant for the trades and those who are meant for higher education,” Imam said.
Imam challenged this false divide between trades and academia, emphasizing the need to elevate manual labor alongside intellectual pursuits. “Our culture has chosen a pagan disdain for the manual trades instead of the Christian praise of them,” Imam told the crowd.
Imam clarified the college’s firm position that not every student should pursue college and critiqued decades of promoting this narrative. “But we cannot give up on higher education,” he continued. “We cannot let higher education go to the wayside. We must reclaim it.”
Acknowledging the widespread labor shortage in the trades, Imam noted that although no single institution can solve the issue alone, the college of St. Joseph the Worker aims to “do something to ensure that every job site does have somebody to lead the way, not only to a traditionally beautiful building, but also to a transformed worker class as well.”
A generous surprise
Imam took the opportunity to appeal for financial support of the College of St. Joseph the Worker. In a surprising moment of generosity, a couple rose to announce a $1 million pledge to further the college’s mission.
Imam, visibly caught off guard by the unexpected gesture, acknowledged that he had not been informed of their plans. The couple went on to challenge the audience to match their substantial contribution, prompting an enthusiastic response from those in attendance.
John Kuhner, owner of a small bookstore in Steubenville, told CatholicVote that event organizers typically hope to raise close to half a million dollars by the end of a fundraising evening such as this. He described the generous donation made early in the night as a remarkable start.
Kuhner’s store, BookMarx, supplies the textbooks for the students at the College of St. Joseph the Worker. “We’ll be expecting a big order from them after this,” Kuhner said.
Advocating for the trades
Imam introduced the evening’s keynote speaker, Rick Santorum, who served as Pennsylvania’s senator from 1995 to 2007 and was the runner-up for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
Calling him “a champion of the trades,” Imam praised Santorum’s notable record of challenging corruption in the “central powers” of government. Imam also shared intriguing details about the senator’s life, including the fact that he was once listed as enemy No. 1 on ISIS’s hit list.
Santorum shared a personal reflection on his 2012 presidential campaign, where he championed the importance of increasing manufacturing, energy, and often addressed the trades and vocational education.
He recalled his famous 2012 criticism of former President Barack Obama for suggesting that everyone should attend college, calling him a “snob.” Santorum emphasized that not everyone needs a college degree and that society also needs individuals who work in the trades and contribute through hands-on labor.
“The reason [Obama] wanted everyone to go to college is because it’s indoctrinating people into the left,” Santorum said. “That’s why the government funds it so much. They use these universities as indoctrination centers, and it’s working.”
Forming men to become strong leaders
The senator shared that 60% of college students are women. “And you may say, ‘Well, so what?’ Yeah, there’s a ‘so what.’ The reality is that colleges and universities, as liberal indoctrination mills, are leaving men behind. And it’s not an accident.”
According to Santorum, the left is attempting to change the nature of men in society, having successfully “neutered and emasculated” many men and “driven them out of colleges and the opportunities to succeed.”
The fact that 90% of the students at St. Joseph’s are men is a positive sign, according to Santorum. He explained that society needs strong, successful men to thrive and that St. Joseph’s offers a place for them to grow into those roles.
He thanked the college founders for “giving men an avenue to succeed and to lead.”
Providing a model of virtue
The values of the College of St. Joseph the Worker stand in contrast to the attempted undermining of men’s role in society by the left, according to the senator.
“The beauty of what Jacob [Imam] is doing and what St. Joseph the Worker is doing, is providing a light and a model for what can be: the good, the true, and the beautiful,” he said.
Santorum encouraged listeners to “engage” with the world, to not fear making people “uncomfortable” by standing up for these ideals.
According to the senator, the objective of the College of St. Joseph the Worker will address “a host of issues” facing society today, and will be an example for the rest of the world.
“And it’s coming from Southwestern Pennsylvania, Southeast Ohio, Northern Panhandle of West Virginia – God’s country,” Santorum said. “Blue collar, hard-working, steel worker tradesmen, who built this country.”
