July 16, 2025 // Local

Harmel Academy Helps Young Men Learn a Trade, Grow in Faith

Todays Catholic

 

“It’s not just education, it’s formation – being formed into who the Lord is calling them to be.”

That is part of what makes Harmel Academy for the Trades unique, according to Drew Anderson, director of advancement at Harmel Academy of the Trades.

Anderson and school president David Michael Phelps recently made the two-hour drive from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to share their mission at a recent meet-and-greet in South Bend, sponsored in part by Notre Dame Federal Credit Union.

More than 40 people gathered during two sessions at St. Peter’s Pub in South Bend in mid-June to learn more about this unique post-secondary program, which is designed for young men who have graduated from high school and are discerning a career in the trades. In addition to offering technical courses, Harmel Academy looks to form the Catholic working man and provides an integrated humanities curriculum that includes philosophy, theology, literature, and history.

“These aren’t disparate categories but rather integrated into one,” Phelps told Today’s Catholic. “[The curriculum is] tailored for men who are going to be living in the skilled trades, specifically designed to help them be able to understand and be able to express to other people in their lives what the Gospel of Work is – not just in theological terms but also in philosophical and imaginative categories, and to really give them models of how to be excellent men.”

Named for Léon Harmel, a successful French Catholic industrialist who led a movement to recognize the dignity and rights of industrial workers, and whose work inspired Pope Leo XIII’s groundbreaking encyclical Rerum Novarum, Harmel Academy received its license to operate on March 12, 2020. The next day, the state of Michigan was shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the work at Harmel continued, with the first class graduating in May of 2022. Now in its fifth year, alums are making their mark.

“The first young man to enroll and graduate was also the first to earn his journeyman’s card,” Phelps said. “He recently got married, bought a house, and, along with other alums, is showing younger students how the model works.”

Program completion can take between 1-2 years, with some returning for a third year in a leadership capacity. To more fully “live a working man’s life,” the men take 16-20 credit hours while working 24-30 hours a week. They live in community and pray together three times a day.

“That first year, they learn to discern if the trades are for them, and if so, which one,” Phelps said. “And after that, they select an apprenticeship path. Some guys will discern that the trades aren’t for them, and they walk away with a lot of good manual skills that will serve them in their lives as men, as husbands, as fathers.”

Leo Drake of South Bend recently completed his first year at Harmel Academy and is pursuing work as an electrician. After spending a year at community college, Drake says he found the school lacking in community. At Harmel, he said he found a brotherhood.

“If you’re just not sure about college, go to Harmel,” Drake told Today’s Catholic. “Worst case scenario is you work and come away with skills that will pay for the experience.”

Bob Kloska, owner of St. Peter’s Pub and chief partnership officer at Notre Dame Federal Credit Union, agrees that there is a great need for the trades today, and he said he is excited for the opportunity to support Harmel’s mission as the school aims to broaden its reach with young men in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

“Work is essential to human dignity,” said Kloska, a former philosophy teacher. “It is one of the primary ways that we can offer our lives to God. Whenever our credit union partners with a nonprofit, we are always looking for ways to help them. This event seemed like a good way to help them spread the word about what they do.”

Phelps has been with Harmel Academy since the beginning, serving as president for the past two years. He says he grew up among “brilliant men who didn’t know they were brilliant” – men who were farmers, machinists, and other skilled tradesmen. Phelps himself had a passion for working on motorcycles.

“They’re great men,” Phelps said. “Great working guys who’ve done amazing things in the world. It’s a shame that so many have a manual genius and don’t realize how special they are. Our hope is that we can help a few of them discover why Our Lord loves them, and He also loves the things they love – like motorcycles!”

Phelps further explained that while work can be utilitarian, it is also a means to serve others. As a carpenter himself, Phelps believes Jesus invites us to cooperate with Him through our work.

“That Our Lord Himself was a working guy, and a builder, should indicate to us that He really cares not only about the created order and how things get built but about the type of formation of the man himself that comes about through work.”

To learn more about Harmel Academy for the Trades, visit harmelacademy.org. With a new location opening on the campus of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, you are also invited to visit in person. Contact Drew Anderson at [email protected] or call 616-485-2345 to learn more.