From O’Gorman to the mission field: Avery Starr’s journey of faith in action

This piece is sponsored by Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools.

Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools is blessed to watch so many of our graduates carry their faith far beyond our walls — but few stories embody missionary discipleship quite like that of Avery Starr, O’Gorman High School Class of 2020.

Today, Starr serves on the front lines of evangelization with Vagabond Missions, walking with underserved teens, building authentic communities and accompanying young people who are searching for purpose, belonging and Christ. What follows is Starr’s own account of how his time at O’Gorman shaped his faith, strengthened his mind and prepared him to answer God’s call with courage and conviction. 

By Avery Starr, class of 2020, O’Gorman High School alumnus 

For going on four years now, I have been blessed to serve as a missionary with Vagabond Missions, a Catholic apostolate geared towards sharing the Gospel with underserved inner-city high school students through investing in relationships, building trust and inviting them into discipleship. 

After graduating from O’Gorman High School in 2020, I went to South Dakota State University for two years. I felt God was calling me somewhere else in my times of prayer. The mission of Vagabond was appealing in its work with the poor, who our Lord connects himself to so profoundly in the Gospel.

In August 2022, I joined the staff at Vagabond and was part of the team that founded the site in Chester, Pennsylvania. It was intimidating traveling halfway across the country trying to introduce ourselves to high schoolers.

However, through meeting a few teens and word spreading, we were able to have a solid group of students coming to our programming throughout our first year.

My team had a space called the Underground, where we would hold our youth group.

In the summer of 2023, we were able to bring a group of six teens to Life Teen’s Catholic Summer Camp in Georgia. Many of the teens had profound encounters with the Lord. After the camp, several high schoolers wanted to come into the church, and I had the opportunity to teach them the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or OCIA. 

In July 2024, I was transferred to the Vagabond site in Indianapolis, Indiana, where I currently serve as the team lead. I came to an established site where teens had been a part of the community the last few years. There were already several teens coming to Sunday Mass with us and were interested in learning more about the Catholic Church. I had the privilege to walk with a brother and sister from the group who desired to receive the sacraments after learning about them through OCIA. They were baptized during Easter Vigil in 2025.

It has been a blessing to help grow the community in Vagabond over the last year. We have been able to meet several teens who have not consistently come to our youth center by going into the local high school once a week during lunches to play Uno with those students. Last May, we hosted our own retreat at a local Catholic campground in which 13 teens attended. In July, we took nine teens to a Steubenville Conference. In November, we took 11 teens to the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis. We also have four teens who are going through OCIA right now, discerning if they want to enter the church this Easter. Please pray for these students!

I think the biggest gift that Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools has taught me to prepare for this job is the harmonious relationship between faith and reason. Faith is a gift from God but not one that contradicts reason. It’s a gift that our reason helps us know better and articulate to others.

I can remember in kindergarten at St. Lambert Elementary asking my teacher, Mrs. Sturm, a question: How is it that we are all sons and daughters of God, and yet the creed at Mass says Jesus Christ is the only Son of God? The validity of that question was affirmed by my teacher. I was taught how the word means different things in different uses and shown at a young age that it is OK to ask questions and the Church has answers.

It also was a gift in high school to have theology teachers. When I had more pressing questions about human nature and the existence of God, which led to a crisis of faith, teachers such as Mr. Cleary and Mr. Krueger helped to explain the Church’s answers.

The desire to come to know the truth of the Church’s teachings has led me to take online courses through Franciscan University in philosophy, theology and psychology while being on missions. The teens I work with ask really smart and profound questions. My curiosity that was fostered through O’Gorman gave me the wisdom and the confidence to answer these questions with both truth and charity.

To learn more about Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools, click here.