Historically an agricultural college, Kansas State University established the first higher education Catholic Rural Life Chapter back in 2021. CRL sat down with Father Gale Hammerschmidt, pastor of St. Isidore Student Center at K-State, and Jenna Reinert, KSU senior and chapter leader, to discuss how and why they worked to start the chapter. These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.
Jenna:
What inspired you to get involved with the K-State Chapter? Why did you want to take an active role in helping to get the chapter started?
I was inspired to get involved with the KSU Chapter when I realized that there wasn’t a way for students coming from rural communities to connect when coming to K-State. After talking to some of my friends with similar experiences, we decided to talk to Father Gale about looking into a Catholic Rural Life Chapter. I wanted to help get this started from day one so that I could help others coming to KSU feel like they were seen, known, and loved by people who could relate to their lived experiences, as well as help them adjust to what it means to come to the city for college!
How did growing up on a farm in Colby, Kansas, impact your Catholic faith?
Growing up in Colby truly shaped me into who I am today because I was taught what it meant to help those around me while also being able to provide for the world! I also think growing up in a farming community made me learn how important it is to have a strong faith because when you have no control over markets and weather, which are two things that impact your livelihood, you learn quickly to turn to God for help.
St. Isidore’s, K-State’s Catholic Student Center, is known for hosting dances, and I know you held a slab dance (driveway dance) for the rural students at St. Isidore’s. Did that help let others know about the chapter?
The slab dance was a fun, casual way for people to learn more about our chapter! It was a way for all of us to connect with a passion many of us hold. Coming up with something others didn’t understand got people to come because they were curious as to what I meant when I told them I was hosting a “slab dance” at my house! We are now in the process of planning a backyard bash!
Fr. Gale:
What’s your experience being the pastor of a Catholic student center at a land grant college? How you do think the agricultural emphasis of the school affects the flavor of your ministry?
From the first day that I showed up on the scene, I recognized that there were many students in and out of our student center wearing cowboy boots—men and women alike. They were some of our finest and holiest students, and I was instantly drawn to them and drawn into their spiritual life, their love of the land, and their goodness. I knew that they needed to be served in a very particular way because they had different needs than the folks from the city, and I was happy to learn from them and hopefully allow them to learn from me.
Being at a rural land grant college, do the urban students come to have an appreciation that agriculture is a big part of the world?
The best thing that I experience at St. Isidore at K-State is the interplay between the city students and the rural students. Just for example, as citizens, we strive to make connections between students who are in Greek life and those who aren’t in Greek life, so that they can learn to appreciate each other and not hold the other as something different than they are. It’s very similar to what we strive to do with those who live in rural communities versus those who live in the big cities—we love to encourage interaction between them, to help them see the good in the other, and to appreciate the other. We see our city kids becoming friends with our farm kids and the farm kids taking the city kids to the farm, and then I hear the stories of what that looks like when they return. That’s a beautiful day and they learn a lot.
How did you witness the beginning steps of the CRL Chapter at K-State? You had some eager students. What was your first impression about this is a great idea?
It came to me one day. We were having a pre-school year retreat with our leadership team (comprised of 60 students), and I was just roaming from one small group to another as they’re having discussions. I started to hear a couple of people talking about the fact that at St. Isidore’s we minister to greet students who are athletes, as well as to a number of different kinds of categories of students. The rural students were mentioning the fact that sometimes they feel isolated, misunderstood, and maybe not appreciated. At the same time, this idea was roaming about starting a rural life CRL Chapter. I brought the idea of starting a chapter to a couple of students, one of whom was Jenna, and both saw CRL as a way to give a voice to those students who are from small towns.
What have you seen as the emerging role of the Chapter within Saint Isidore? What activities have you seen the chapter try to do?
I’d say two pillars of what our chapter is striving to do are education and fun. They had a slab dance where all the rural kids came and danced, and the city kids could come as well. They probably talked about their new balers and favorite types of barbed wire. And yet they’re still dancing. They shared some great food, and so it’s a lot of fun.
We also strive to bring in some speakers who are connected with the agricultural college at K-State. Professors, who are both Catholic and tied up in agricultural life, speak about the ways in which their Catholic faith has inspired them to love the life of rural America and the world of agriculture and how the two are tied together.
