Wahoo campus minister to receive the St. John Bosco award
By Deacon Matthew Hecker, Ph.D.
for the Register
Gery Kenney, from Bishop Neumann in Wahoo, is the 2024 St. John Bosco Award Winner; Support Staff Member of the Year.
Gery Kenney grew up on a farm near Salina, Kan., the 11th of 12 children. She moved to Nebraska in 2007.
“My husband’s family was from Omaha, and we had been considering making the move to be near them,” she said. “However, I never wanted to live in a big city.”
They came to Wahoo for a funeral, and, “As soon as I came into the church (St. Wenceslaus),” Kenney said, “I thought, ‘I could live here.’ It felt like home.
“When I realized Wahoo was part of the Lincoln Diocese, which I’d always admired, I was sold,” she added. “After visiting the schools and finding there were six priests in the school every day, I was flabbergasted. That sealed the deal for me, and we moved here.”
Kenney has eight adult children who all graduated from Bishop Neumann Jr./Sr. High School. Kenney herself grew up attending a Catholic grade school and high school, and she graduated from Benedictine College with a degree in elementary education.
However, “I never thought I’d work in a high school, let alone in Nebraska,” she said.
Originally, Kenney taught elementary education in Kansas City and Salina for six years. Then, she said, she was blessed to stay home for 20 years raising her eight children. Part of those years, she homeschooled. When her youngest child entered kindergarten at St. Wenceslaus School, Kenney began to substitute teach throughout Saunders County.
In 2016, Kenney participated in a strategic committee tasked with strengthening the Catholic identity of Bishop Neumann. She volunteered to start mission trips there with another mother, Susan Chohon.
“Our goals were to make this trip authentically Catholic and, partly because we both had big families, we wanted the mission trip to be affordable for all,” Kenney recalled. “We didn’t know if students would respond, but we took almost 40 students to Chicago that first year.”
In 2017, following the success of the first mission trip, Father Michael Morin, then chief administrative officer of Bishop Neumann, asked Kenney if she would consider being the campus minister.
“I went home, prayed about it, and decided that might be a good fit for me,” Kenney said. “That’s how I came into this job. I really believe the Holy Spirit led me here at a time when the school needed it and I needed it.”
That first trip has now evolved into an annual mission trip to Gallup, N.M, where students work with the Missionaries of Charity, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and at the Sacred Heart Retreat Center.
“The mission trip has been a huge blessing to me and one of the most gratifying parts of my job,” Kenney said. “It is one of the best things we do at Neumann. I am so grateful for the team that has helped me each year because without those people, it would not happen.”
When she began, with no prior experience in campus ministry, Kenney reached out to other campus ministers in area schools.
“I traveled to see what they did and asked a lot of questions,” she said. “Then I took out the Catholic calendar and started to plan my year around that.”
Asked about a typical day in the life of a campus minister, Kenney responded with a laugh.
“First, I would say, every day is different. Because we are a small school, I do the planning for most things on the spiritual level. I can be doing anything from planning class retreats, organizing mission trips, or teaching a Bible study. I schedule spiritual direction for students in grades 10-12 where they meet with a priest, sister, or another adult for one hour a month.
“I run our campus ministry group, the pro-life group and help direct our school’s community system,” she continued. “Bishop Neumann wants to have a place where every student feels like they belong, that they are loved, and that they are growing in their walk with Jesus Christ.”
The best and most important part of her job, she stressed, is the time spent with students.
“As campus ministers we have a unique relationship with students,” she explained. “We get to build relationships away from the classroom. A big part of my day is the time when they stop by my office. Students talk about what is going on in their lives, problems they might have, or sometimes we are just being together. I feel (that) if I can help them on their way to sainthood in some little way, that would be my biggest accomplishment.”
Kenney continues to work with the other Catholic high schools in the diocese.
“It’s important for our students to meet other students from the diocese and make connections and friendships outside of their own schools,” she said. “My youngest daughter would say that is where she met some of her best friends: students she went to TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) with, The March for Life, or other campus ministry events.”
The results of Kenney’s work have been evident.
“We went from taking nine students my first year to the Steubenville Youth Conference to now more than 50. This year, we took 71 students and adults on our mission trip. Things like that are just exploding. This year we started discipleship groups, not knowing what would happen, and 50 students have signed up. This is evidence that our students are ‘hungry’ for the faith.”
In the big picture, Kenney admits, “It’s not about the numbers. I am more interested in helping them keep the encounter they experience on the mission trip, their class retreats or Steubenville, for example. How do I keep that sustainable and ongoing in their day-to-day lives? For me, my whole goal is that they are lifelong Catholics with a relationship with Christ. How can I help the students really encounter God and continue that relationship throughout their whole lives?”
Kenney will receive her award Oct. 13 at the third annual “Saints & Scholars” dinner to celebrate Catholic schools, educators and benefactors in the Diocese of Lincoln. All are welcome to attend. See www.goodshepherdscholarship.com for more details.
