Justin Hoch

degree program: ma/msw

Hometown: Greenwood, Indiana
Current position: Director of Campus Ministry at Trinity High School, River Forest, IL

“In my year of service accompanying students from low-income backgrounds, I was challenged to acknowledge the ways in which mental health, race, sexuality and other identities play a significant role in one's spiritual development. In seeing the need for holistic ministry, I found my way to the MA/MSW dual degree program. While the STM offered the rigorous theological education I needed at the foundation of my ministry, the social work degree provided me with the language around mental health and trauma and the counseling skills to better support, accompany, and minister to people. At the intersection of theology and social work, I grew in my identity as a minister becoming more confident in my ability to address important issues of social justice, identity formation, and trauma healing. With the MA/MSW dual degree, my ministry has become about creating spaces of radical inclusion and true belonging in which all those I minister to can feel loved, included, and authentically themselves, not in spite of, but because their identity is beloved by God.”