Bishop Dwenger Career Academy

Fort Wayne; blessed and opened August 6, 2026, as the career and technical facility of Bishop Dwenger High School

What it is: This is a facility, not a school of its own. The Bishop Dwenger Career Academy is the career and technical education academy of Bishop Dwenger High School, built attached to the high school at 1300 East Washington Center Road. It keeps no enrollment, no principal and no state school record of its own; its students are Bishop Dwenger's, and it is led within the high school. The high school has its own entry in this history, covering 1963 to the present, and this entry stands for the academy as the inventory lists it, a facility item of its opening year; it can be carried as its own entry, or folded into the high school's entry at a later pass, and is written to serve either way.

The planning: The high school's own Career Academy page describes the project as it stood before the opening: "After more than two years of planning, studies, and navigating the approval process, we will finally break ground on a revolutionary expansion: an authentically Catholic Career Academy. The Bishop Dwenger Career Academy will be one of only three Catholic High School Career and Technical Academies in the nation." The page names four programs, Biomedical, Construction Trades, and Welding and Metal Fabrication, with Pre-Engineering marked "Coming Soon," and notes that the academy satisfies the requirements of Indiana's updated graduation pathways. Its figures are a fundraising page's figures: "The total project costs register at $6,500,000. So far, $3,500,000 has been raised or pledged." The page is signed by Jason Schiffli, the high school's principal.

The opening: On Thursday, August 6, 2026, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades blessed the new academy in a ceremony capping years of planning, followed by a symbolic ribbon cutting led by Principal Jason Schiffli, the diocese's news release reports. "Such a wonderful dream project, finally nearing completion," the bishop said. His homily drew on the Book of Sirach's tradesmen, the farmers, engravers, blacksmiths and potters who "put their trust in their hands," and he said he had long felt for Catholic students who had to leave Bishop Dwenger to pursue technical training elsewhere, often at programs without enough seats. "This is the first of our high schools to do this," he said. "I'd say Dwenger is blazing the trail here." Schiffli traced the academy's origins to Dwenger students repeatedly being turned away or denied their first choice program at a nearby training facility, a shortage he tied to the Fort Wayne area's rapid growth, and connected the academy to Pope St. John Paul II's 1981 encyclical on human work, Laborem Exercens: here, he said, students "will not simply prepare for a job. They will prepare for a vocation."

The building and its programs: The ground floor houses the construction, welding, carpentry, electrical and engineering programs, and the second floor is dedicated to the biomedical field. The diocese's release names five areas of study at the opening, biomedical, engineering, construction trades, welding and metal fabrication, and entrepreneurship, a list that differs from the planning page's four, with engineering arrived from its "Coming Soon" place and entrepreneurship new; both lists are printed as their documents give them. Students have access to expanded dual credit coursework and industry certifications, and the construction and welding curriculum is recognized by Ivy Tech Community College, so that graduates may enter the workforce directly or enroll at Ivy Tech as second year students. The academy's two inaugural trade instructors are Brian Bird, a 1989 Bishop Dwenger graduate and a retired welding instructor from Michigan's public schools, and Cody York, who previously taught construction at the high school level.

Claims and open items: The school's planning page claims one of only three Catholic high school career and technical academies in the nation; at the opening, Schiffli said Bishop Dwenger believes it is the only Catholic high school in Indiana with its own attached career and technical facility. The claims are different claims, and both are carried as stated. Interest in the model has already drawn visitors from outside the diocese, the release says, including educators from the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, and the Archdiocese of Chicago, and David Maugel, the diocese's superintendent of schools, tied the academy at the ceremony to the high school's motto, "Citizens of Two Worlds." Three items stand open on the record: no groundbreaking date is documented in the sources reached, the planning page still speaking of breaking ground; no separate director of the academy is named in any source, the academy running within the high school under its principal; and the academy keeps no enrollment of its own, its students being counted with Bishop Dwenger High School's.

Sources:

1. Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, news release, August 6, 2026: the blessing of the Career and Technical Education Academy by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, the building and its five areas of study, the inaugural instructors, and the remarks of Principal Jason Schiffli and Superintendent David Maugel
2. Bishop Dwenger High School, Career Academy page (bishopdwenger.com): the planning of more than two years, the four planned programs, the project cost of $6,500,000 with $3,500,000 raised or pledged, and the claim of one of only three such academies in the nation
3. Moosed History, Schools inventory and the Bishop Dwenger High School entry: the academy carried as a facility item of 2026, the high school's entry covering 1963 to the present