CCO Campus Ministry

Home / Transformed Lives / Josh Hoey

Josh Hoey

hoey_josh.jpg“The CCO taught me to take my faith seriously,” says Josh Hoey. “I was always in the church growing up, but I started to take ownership of my faith during my more independent years at college. Away from my family, my home church, and my comfort zones, I had to really question what I believed and why I believed it. This was especially true at college in everything from broad generalizations about life to very particular aspects of Christian doctrine.”

Josh first connected to the CCO’s ministry during his sophomore year at Grove City College, when he got to know his Resident Director, CCO staff member Erik Wessel. “Initially, we got together to watch Jack Bauer kick some major terrorist butt, but the relationship deepened with time,” Josh remembers. “Thanks to Erik’s influence, I had the courage to leave the football team and come work in Residence Life. Also, I joined his start-up leadership development team, where we tried to analyze and influence the student culture on campus.”

Josh’s departure from the football team, and his investment in residence life as an undergrad, ultimately propelled him to pursue his master’s degree in higher education from Geneva College. “The CCO was a major catalyst in my college experience, helping me to place people over pigskin. My student experience changed for the better when my main extracurricular activity went from football to residence life. In isolation, this might seem like a minor change, but one thing led to another. My involvement in Residence Life inspired me to enroll in Geneva’s Higher Education program, which is where I met my wife, who now works for the CCO. And it all comes full circle! My life has been, and continues to be, transformed by the CCO.”

Today, Josh and his wife, Alicia, live in Pittsburgh, and Josh is working a couple of part-time jobs while searching for work that will employ his interest in higher education. They currently attend Eastminster Presbyterian Church.

“Growing up, I was always involved in the church, and I have a heart for youth in particular,” Josh says. “From my experience, there are not many men who feel the call to this kind of ministry. I believe that I was designed to be a shepherd for the youth, and church is a great venue for that sort of thing.”

And Josh continues to have a heart for college ministry as well, especially because of how it influenced his own life.

“CCO employees have a heart for students,” he says. “That student-centric mindset grabbed my attention while I was in college. It gave new life to the way I viewed my education and higher education in general. My faith had always been central, but I never realized the great potential that my beliefs held until shown that they could not only exist in harmony with, but also bring new life to what I was learning in the classroom. The Jubilee conference has been a great reminder of God’s mission here on earth. The biggest takeaway from my attendance at Jubilee has been a more refined Kingdom vision. It has been inspirational over the years to see lives changed and hearts and minds transformed at the Jubilee conference.”