Student debt almost prevented Sister Ann Dominic Mahowald from pursuing her vocation with the Dominicans.
When someone becomes a religious, he or she no longer receives an income, making it impossible to maintain student loan payments that can span decades. Fund for Vocations offers a solution.
Founded in 2004 by Corey and Katherine Huber, the organization now offers two programs: the long-standing St. Joseph Grant Program, which covers student loan debt, and the recently launched "DAD Fund" (Discretionary Anti-Discouragement Fund).
While the St. Joseph program handles monthly tuition payments, the DAD Fund takes on the smaller costs of discernment — what Fund for Vocations spokesperson Annie Ryland described as "hidden financial barriers to religious vocations." The DAD Fund provides grants of $5,000 or $10,000 directly to religious communities to support discerners.
For instance, Mahowald, now a board member of Fund for Vocations, told the group how she had needed to ask her parish to sponsor her airfare to visit the Nashville Dominicans when she was discerning.
"We asked ourselves, 'How many young people are getting stuck at that stage of discernment? Not being able to fly to the discernment retreat and quietly giving up?'" Ryland told EWTN News.
"Expenses like travel for 'Come and See' visits, psychological evaluations, or temporary health insurance can total several thousands of dollars, and that's all before candidates even enter novitiate," Ryland added.
Eleven religious communities have already reached out to Fund for Vocations for funds "to support the new discerners," according to Ryland.
"The goal of the DAD Fund is to ensure that these smaller financial barriers do not delay or discourage men and women who are already showing great courage in sincerely exploring a vocation," Ryland continued.
Work of renewal
In recent years, the Catholic Church has seen a worldwide decline in the number of priests and seminarians. The number of religious sisters has plummeted since 1965, with an 82% decrease over the past 60 years.
But religious and priests are vital to the life of the Church.
"Every vocation is a gift to the Church," Mary Radford, executive director of the Fund for Vocations, said in a press release shared with EWTN News. "We want to make sure that practical concerns, whether travel costs, required evaluations, or basic entry expenses, never become the reason someone hesitates to take the next step in discernment."
"Every religious vocation means a life given over to prayer and service for Christ's Church," Ryland said. "Religious serve in parishes, in schools, in medical clinics, on the streets with the homeless and suffering. They are living witness to the power of the Gospel."
"Religious also serve to remind us all of our heavenly goal. When young people see devout, joy-filled priests and sisters, they catch a glimpse of the power of God's love and are shown that the Catholic faith is worth living and dying for," Ryland said. "And of course, we all need the sacraments, so vocations to the priesthood are especially critical for the salvation of souls."
"By removing the financial obstacles that can stand in the way of a vocation, we get to play a small role in the great work of renewal and hope that God is stirring up in his Church today," Ryland said.
In the past few weeks since the new fund launched, Ryland said that "the response has been overwhelmingly grateful and positive."
"Vocations directors seem most excited about being able to assist with travel expenses for candidates who wish to attend a Come and See weekend but cannot afford the trip on their own," Ryland said.
'A late vocation'
Steven Ellison, a seminarian with the Discalced Carmelite order, describes himself as a "late vocation." Raised by a devout Protestant family, Ellison joined the Catholic Church in his early 30s in 2022.
"When the Lord first lifted the veil that covered my eyes and allowed me to see the beauty of his Church for the first time, I perceived then in a passing moment of clarity my vocation to the Discalced Carmelite order and to the priesthood," Ellison said.
He picked St. Teresa of Ávila as his confirmation sponsor, but it would be a few years before his vocation became fully clear to him.
When he began to pursue a vocation with the Carmelites, he faced the burden of student debt.
"When discerning religious life with its vow to poverty, all personal debts need to be either cleared away or assumed by a third party so that the aspiring religious can be free from financial entanglements," Ellison said.
He remembered thinking: "If the Lord removes these circumstances that appear to be obstacles and opens every door to Carmel for me then I would enter through each open door so that I might do his will."
Despite being an older candidate, at 34, the Carmelites said it would not be a barrier — but his student debt still would be.
"It was there that the Fund for Vocations and their donors became the avenue of God's grace for me," Ellison said. "In their assumption of my student loans, and in their pledge to support me throughout my formation, the final doors of entry to Carmel were opened and I was able to walk through them with confidence in the Lord because of the faithfulness of his Church."
"The Fund for Vocations became for me a reflection of the Church's goodness," Ellison said.
"The fruits have been innumerable so far, and I have grown accustomed to referring to those fruits as treasures — treasures because these gifts from the Lord seem both hidden and imperishable," he said of the vocations program.
'A life given'
Mahowald "was seriously contemplating a religious vocation," but she had a 30-year payment plan for more than $100,000 in student debt.
"I was dumbfounded by the simple fact that my Catholic education was both the reason for my deep love for Jesus and the obstacle to my pursuit of following Jesus in religious life due to the debt I had accrued," Mahowald said.
Debt can be a barrier to joining religious life, especially student debt that is designed to be paid off over decades.
"My debt was too significant for the sisters to assume so I knew that I couldn't enter until that financial difficulty was solved," Mahowald said.
"There were moments of real sadness and confusion when I didn't see how God would answer this dilemma," Mahowald said. "The Fund for Vocations was the miracle that allowed me to enter religious life at the age of 24 instead of 54."
"I applied for a grant and was eligible to enter religious life while the Fund for Vocations paid my monthly loan payments," Mahowald said. "The genius behind this model is that it gave me the freedom to discern."
"The Fund for Vocations is set up to make monthly loan payments while the candidate is in formation," Mahowald said. "If the candidate discerns to leave, he or she just picks up the next loan payment. If the candidate makes final vows then the loans are taken care of completely."
Ryland described Fund for Vocations as a "family" and "a beautiful microcosm of the generosity and love of the whole body of Christ."
"We love to see the relationships of love and prayer that develop between our supporters and our grant recipients," Ryland continued. "Supporters are like spiritual godmothers and godfathers to these young men and women. Many tell us they think of them as spiritual children."
Mahowald found the same in her experience.
"One of the fruits of being a grant recipient is that I've been adopted into a larger family," Mahowald said. "Katherine and Corey Huber, the founders of the Fund for Vocations, keep in contact with me and came to celebrate both my first and final vows. Other benefactors were placed in my life that I still keep in touch with to this day."
"Knowing that donors to the Fund for Vocations were supporting me in my vocational journey taught me that the gift of my 'yes' to God was not just for me but also for the upbuilding of the Church," Mahowald said.
'I walk the halls with saints in the making'
Mahowald now works as the assistant principal of student life and discipline at Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Virginia — the same school she taught at before she became a religious sister.
"My position allows me to watch over and shape the social development of our young students," Mahowald said. "We care deeply about the formation of the whole person and desire our graduates to become disciples of Christ."
"I joke with the students that my job is to plan parties and to keep everyone safe. While I say that with a smile, it's not a bad summary of how I serve," Mahowald said.
"Working with high school students brings daily adventures, and I am certain that I walk the halls with saints in the making," Mahowald said. "God is raising up many young people who are sincerely eager to know, love, and serve him."
"I anticipate more vocations to the priesthood and religious life and therefore am so grateful that the Fund for Vocations exists so that anyone experiencing financial obstacles to religious life will not be discouraged but will instead have hope and support to be able to leave everything and follow Christ," Mahowald said.
