October 15, 2025 // Bishop

Bishop Dwenger Breaks Ground on Technical Career Academy

Clare Hildebrandt

Reporter

With younger generations becoming increasingly interested in trades such as welding, construction, and a variety of hands-on careers, officials at Bishop Dwenger High School have come up with a plan to create a hub for skills-based learning.

The school’s new 14,000-square-foot Technical Career Academy, which is to be built in what is now a courtyard on school grounds, aims to give students proper training in the trades without having to leave Bishop Dwenger’s campus. The $6.5 million project is projected to be completed by August of 2026, before the beginning of the next school year. 

On Friday, October 3, officials with the high school held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the project. Bishop Dwenger is partnering with the Tippmann Group and Michael Kinder and Sons (MKS) to complete the construction.

“We have discovered a need among our students,” Katie Slee, director of advancement at Bishop Dwenger, told Today’s Catholic. “They have a lot of interests in various fields, and we have a great partnership with Anthis [technical academy in Fort Wayne] … but sometimes they just don’t get the spots in classes they were looking for. … We decided: Why don’t we just do this through a Catholic lens? We still want to keep those great partnerships that we have but also be able to serve our students on campus and get them some of their first choices.”

“We currently have a biomedical program, and we’re looking to expand that,” Slee added. “We’re looking to add some more certification options. … We want to make sure our kids are set up to explore various medical fields. … Another one we’re looking at adding is our engineering program. And we’re hoping, with our engineering program, that not only will they get those dual credit options … but also work hand in hand with our construction teams and our welding and metal fabrication so that our engineering students can conceptualize the projects.”

Slee continued: “We would love our engineering students to come up with the set for our biggest fundraiser of the year and then have our own students be the ones who build it, so they really see what’s going on and how they can contribute and work together.”

Slee noted that the school is planning to partner with area universities and businesses to ensure that the program “responds to the needs of our student and the climate that we have going on.”

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Bishop Rhoades led the group in prayer and blessed the ground that would be broken for the new technical school.

“I was thinking as I was driving here: I’ve been really hoping for this project for years,” Bishop Rhoades said. “I felt strongly that our Catholic high schools should also provide education for those who are called to work with their hands as well as their minds, those who would work in careers such as the trades, the crafts. … There is such a great need in our workforce for this. … I’m so grateful to all the donors.”

Bishop Rhoades added: “The Gospels tell us that Joseph was a tekton. … He built things. If he built things with wood, then he was a carpenter. Though, he might have built things with stone, and that’s what Jesus would have done. He wasn’t just sitting at home during those first 30 years of His life before He went out on His public ministry. [Jesus] was a worker, and most likely worked in the shop of His foster father, St. Joseph,” Bishop Rhoades explained. “This work has just as much dignity as other occupations, and I think that it’s important that we understand that our young people who are attending Bishop Dwenger High School, some of them may have that calling to work with their hands.”

Maggie Keefer, a sophomore at Bishop Dwenger, told Today’s Catholic that she is looking forward to the new technical academy.

“I always thought it would be cool to work in the medical field, and now we will have classes that prepare us for that at Bishop Dwenger,” Keefer said.

Brendan James, a senior at Bishop Dwenger, told Today’s Catholic that while he won’t be able to experience the technical academy himself, “I’m excited for the students in the years to come.”

Clare Hildebrandt is a staff writer for Today’s Catholic.