Wyoming’s second four–year college had an exciting weekend
recently when it welcomed 54 new freshmen back to ground level after they spent
three weeks bonding in the towering nearby mountains.
Wyoming Catholic College, entering its 15th year of
existence since its incorporation in 2005, welcomed its 13th freshmen
class during convocation and matriculation ceremonies Aug. 25-26.
The Catholic school is unusual in many ways. One of the most
distinctive is its outdoor program. Each fall, all the incoming freshmen
go on a 21-day wilderness expedition in the mountains. This year the
freshman women went into the Wind River Mountains near Lander and the men
traveled into the Teton Mountain Range outside of Jackson.
Another unusual aspect is that all the students take the
same liberal arts-based curriculum through their four years at WCC. The
program is based on the Great Books and on Catholic Theology.
A third unique aspect of the college is its horsemanship
program. All students are required to learn to ride and it is an integral part
of their learning.
The student body now has 179 students who come from all over
the USA. Enrollment should surpass 200 students within a few years with
an ultimate goal of no more than 400.
There are 19 members of the faculty with Dr. Kyle Washut of
Casper the acting dean. The school contributes about $4 million a year to the
Lander area economy, according to Paul McCown, the controller.
The school uses buildings all over Lander for its housing
and activities. Main location is in downtown Lander where it leases three large
two-story buildings. It also uses a classroom building that formerly
housed students of Central Wyoming College. A former Legion Hall has been
re-named Frassati Hall, and serves as a dining room and student union.
Most religious activities are at Holy Rosary Catholic
Church, but the College also has its own small chapel inside the Baldwin
Building at 306 Main Street.
The idea of a four-year Catholic college in Wyoming was
first conceived by former Wyoming Bishop David Ricken, now of Green Bay,
WI. He mentioned the idea during a summer program on Casper Mountain in
the early 2000s called the Wyoming School of Catholic Thought.
Bishop Ricken was joined by Casper College professor Dr.
Robert Carlson and Casper priest Fr. Bob Cook in figuring out how to bring the
school to reality.
They, along with a committee that included Ray Hunkins of
Cheyenne, entertained 49 different statewide proposals for where to locate the
college before settling on Lander, Wheatland, and Cody. The final choice was
Lander, partially because a ranch was donated to the effort by Francine
Mortenson, in memory of her late husband Chris. Chris Mortenson had been
a prominent real estate developer in San Diego and had purchased their Lander
ranch from Johnny and Jeanne Lee some years earlier.
The Lander community also raised $300,000 in donations,
which a group called the Cornerstone Committee gave to the school with no
strings attached. The local Knights of Columbus donated $100,000 of that total.
In 2007, the school had hired a small faculty and enrolled
its first class of 35 students. It took just two years from its first public
mention to when students were taking classes. On May 14, 2011, history was made
when 30 of those original students received the first diplomas from Wyoming
Catholic College. Wyoming could honestly
say it now had two four-year college campus programs.
Folks at the college are not shy about referring to some
amazing coincidences (miracles?) or at least, answered prayers, which have
occurred along its amazing journey to reality.
The school does not participate in any federal student loan
programs and refuses to be beholden to anything from the federal government. It
survives on student tuition and a large national base of donors. Without any
alumni or even an established donor base to draw upon, the college succeeded
because of thousands of people believing in the need for such an institution.
By 2011, with the help of millions of dollars in donations
from more than 10,000 families across the country, the college achieved its
goal of providing graduates with a high-quality education.
Fr. Cook, the first president of the college, liked to point
out that although the first name of the college is Wyoming, it was truly a
national college with students from 37 different states by 2011.
Although just about everything involving WCC is conservative
in nature, what it provides for its students is a “liberal, classical
education” based on the Great Books.
Current president Dr. Glenn Arbery says that all students
take the same courses. “Our mission is to form the whole person, physically,
mentally, and spiritually. We want our students to take away as much as they
can carry of the great wealth of the tradition of Western civilization. We need
young people confident in their faith and capable of independent thought, and
we know that each of them will have the ability to think clearly and to speak
effectively. They will be leaders out in the greater world,” he says.
The college received its full accreditation last fall.
From Day One, perhaps the most interesting things about the
college, among many unique aspects, has been the outdoor leadership program.
WCC originally teamed up with the National Outdoor
Leadership School (NOLS) in Lander to provide an outdoor education course for
incoming freshmen that educates them on the outdoors, teaches them leadership
plus bonds them together as they continue their studies for four years.
In recent years, the school had enough faculty and graduates that it now
provides its own leaders for these expeditions.
It is easy to write a column about the nuts and bolts of the
college but the key thing anyone discovers when involved with WCC is the quality
of the students.
My wife Nancy and I know these are the finest young
people. Incredibly smart and pure of heart, they are almost impossibly
optimistic. When you deal with these future leaders, you know the future
is in good hands.
As a disclaimer I should point out that I was on the
original local committee that helped get the college started.
This is a true Wyoming success story. This is the
story of how a miracle can occur out on the frontier, even in pessimistic
times.
President Arbery reminds that the college is always looking
for donors and this would be a wonderful time to give. The college web
site is www.wyomingcatholic.edu and its mailing address is Box 750, Lander
WY 82520.
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