St. Dominic, St. Mary’s introduce students to building trades through hands-on courses
Ava Stillman stretched her measuring tape down the length of a 2×4, using a speed square tool to carefully mark where to make her cut. She needed a solid jack stud to support the header of the window she was framing out.
Clad in work boots and safety glasses, this was typical morning coursework for Ava and her classmates in the new building trades program at St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon.
St. Dominic launched the program this year to introduce students to four core building trades areas: carpentry, electrical, plumbing/pipefitting and HVAC. Juniors and seniors begin with an introduction course that gives an overview of all four trades; in subsequent semesters, they can take courses in any of those four specialties. This year, carpentry and electrical will be offered in the spring semester, and plumbing/pipefitting and HVAC will be added in the 2026-27 school year.
Ava, a senior and one of three female students in the 90-person program this semester, has been enjoying learning skills that will benefit her as a future homeowner — and hopefully in her planned career. “Next semester, I’m taking the electrical class,” she said. “I’m thinking of doing electrical engineering, and I thought that hands-on experience would be good.”
The building trades program classes are held in a newly acquired building converted from a former warehouse neighboring the school, purchased with a $2.4 million gift from an anonymous benefactor. The 28,000-square foot warehouse now includes two classrooms and large lab areas for each of the four trades.
Over the past two months, students have been gradually building several small-scale model homes — and one full-size model — from the ground up, constructing a foundation, floors and walls, with roofing and more to come.
About 80 percent of class time is spent on the hands-on skills training, with 20 percent in the classroom learning the theory behind the skills first, principal Stacy Stewart said. Like every other course at St. Dominic, class time includes prayer and connection to faith — and no room is without a crucifix.
“They start with Scripture every day in the classroom — they always have one (verse) written on their board,” she said. “It’s nice to tie that in, and it puts in a great mindset for the kids to have that as part of that prayer pillar every day.”
Juniors Ryan Wiegner and Cody Molitor are both interested in exploring careers in the trades after high school.
“It’s challenged me to slow down and really think. Taking this class, you’ve got to be precise,” Cody said. “My favorite part is seeing the finished product when you’re done with something and being able to say that you did that.”
Building trades program teachers Ken Fitzgerald and Tyler Jones bring their own trades experience to the classroom. Fitzgerald, a 1986 St. Dominic alumnus, owns a residential construction remodeling and rebuilding company.
“I think understanding the need for people in the trades and seeing the kids’ interest in it has been very rewarding,” he said. “Having had my own company and employees, it’s hard to find somebody that even knows what a hammer is. So this is going to open doors for these kids, regardless of what direction they decide to go into.”
Even if students don’t pursue a career in the trades, just being able to tackle house projects on their own is a skill that will benefit them for life, said Jones, a member of the local carpenters union.
“You’ll save a lot of money; you’ll know how to do stuff without having to pay somebody to do it, which can be very expensive,” he said. “And just being able to know how to do stuff yourself, I would say, is an important aspect in life that nobody can take away from you.”
The program grew from a desire to have trades education opportunities in the curriculum, St. Dominic president Jim Welby said. They considered several options, including partnering with other institutions to send students off-campus, but ultimately decided it was important to keep it under the St. Dominic mission.
“We know our kids come here for a reason, and the primary reason that our families tell us, and that we’re here and exist, is because of the ability to teach our Catholic faith and live our Catholic faith. And we didn’t want a group of kids to not be part of that culture. We didn’t want them to feel like they were just here for a couple classes and then they went to a different school,” Welby said.
The school is looking at ways to connect the building trades program with charitable opportunities in the future, Welby added, such as building tiny homes for people experiencing homelessness. “We really want to weave in, not just the trades as part of that curriculum, but also, what does that look like to use those skills to benefit the broader community?”
Trades training on the south side
Forty miles away in St. Louis, St. Mary’s South Side Catholic High School students exercised their own carpentry skills. Young men in the Marianist school’s pre-apprenticeship program were hard at work on a Friday morning constructing a pair of cornhole sets to be sold at the upcoming dinner auction.
The pre-apprenticeship program at St. Mary’s is an elective for upperclassmen that introduces students to 15 different trades. The program launched in 2023 and is funded by the Missouri Works Initiative of the Missouri AFL-CIO.
In addition to classroom projects, students visit several area trade unions to meet laborers and see the work in action. Students interested in applying to a trade union are matched with a mentor in that field to help them through the process. Pre-apprenticeship students also earn their OSHA 10 certification, which gives them a head start if they enter an apprenticeship program right out of high school or down the road, instructor Tracy Hykes said.
Junior Claude Windom had been looking forward to taking the class since he was a freshman. He’s interested in pursuing a career as a welder after high school but is also open to other trades paths that he is experiencing as part of the class.
“My favorite part (so far) is when we built bookshelves. There’s one here, and there’s one upstairs in the teachers lounge,” he said. “It was a big project that we got to burn and stain and all that type of stuff.”
This year, the school also entered into a new partnership with SSM Health through which two seniors serve a yearlong internship with the health system’s HVAC and plumbing professionals, earning experience hours in the field.
Rafael Leon, one of the SSM Health interns, plans to pursue a career in HVAC. He’s applied to Ranken Technical School to continue trades education after graduating from St. Mary’s in the spring.
“This (class) is a good learning experience, working with my hands, working with my peers, learning to build new stuff, even if it’s simple,” he said.
The pre-apprenticeship program is another way to help students discover their gifts and talents and how to apply them, St. Mary’s principal Valerie Todd said.
“We’ve always tried to meet students where they are and give them as many opportunities as we can,” Todd said. “So I feel like this is one other way that our students can explore different options that they may want to do beyond graduation.”
