About the Salesians / Travis Gunther

I am Travis Gunther and this is my vocation story. Since fourth grade I’ve thought about the priesthood but in middle school and high school I pushed it to the back shelf because I was made fun of for it and it wasn’t cool. But around my junior year of high school I seriously started to consider religious life again. I spoke with the diocese vocation director and with the Benedictines, who were the only religious community I knew at the time.

Travis Gunther

I kept in contact with both groups but during my senior year I didn’t feel a strong calling to go with either one so I registered at the University of Arkansas to study Architecture. Well towards the end of my senior year, Mike Massey, a family friend, invited me to work a summer camp with him in Florida for six weeks. I thought, “Hey I get to go to Florida, experience a new religious order, and play with kids for the summer.” Well I got to do those things but I also learned about Don Bosco’s philosophy of being a friend and father to the youth. Also the community I lived with ranged in age from early 30’s to mid 70’s and each of them was excited about the opportunity to work with kids. Each had their own way of interacting with the kids, some could do magic tricks, some drew cartoons, and others played soccer. I learned a great deal about youth ministry and life those six weeks.

After camp I started my freshman year at the U of A. During my two years at the U of A I became very involved with Catholic Campus Ministry and helped with state wide youth retreats and conventions. Towards the end of my sophomore year architecture just didn’t seem to be for me and I needed to take a breather to see what I really wanted to do with my life. As soon as those thoughts popped into my head so did thoughts of the priesthood. I spoke with the Benedictines, Diocesan Vocation Director, and Salesians. I grew during the 6 weeks I lived in community with the Benedictines this summer but felt God calling me to spend time in discernment with the Salesians. I am worked iin the soup kitchen, teaching 5th grade RE, and at the Youth Center in Port Chester, NY. This year I am a pre-novice. It’s going to be a great year with the Salesians and I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store.

In his spare time Travis is usually downstairs in the workshop working on his wood art creations that he makes to help raise funding for the Salesians.

Creative freedom for Travis is found in the workshop (left) or in the studio (right) where he is usually creating new videos for the Salesians like the one on the homepage of this site.

Art for Travis just means another channel to spread the gospel of the Lord.