A mentor and model

Harry Scherer
Class of 2022

(9/2021) On one cold Emmitsburg morning in January 2019, I jumped from classroom to classroom, expectantly waiting for each professor to distribute the syllabus and lay out the academic vision for the class. It’s a ritual I anticipate every semester, especially during my first year of college. At the end of my noon entry-level philosophy class that felt like it lasted for ten minutes, I turned to the woman sitting next to me and said, "wow, he’s awesome."

The man I was referring to was Josh Hochschild. My 18-year-old self did not know his expertise, position, or story. I just knew that he had something good to say, and I had time to listen.

Since that time almost three years ago, Dr. Hochschild has become my academic mentor, the director of the philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) program, of which I am a part, and the model I consult during those times when I wonder how it’s possible to live well in contemporary higher education.

His academic credentials are impressive in themselves. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a PhD in philosophy at Notre Dame, he was offered a tenure-track philosophy position at both Wheaton College, an evangelical Protestant college in northeast Illinois, and at the Mount. After much deliberation, the then-Anglican philosopher took the position in Illinois in the fall of 2001. A few years into his tenure, he was received into the Catholic Church, "and," according to Hochschild, "there were many blessings associated with that, but staying at Wheaton wasn’t one of them." Hochschild left Wheaton in the spring of 2005.

He then applied again to be a part of the philosophy department at the Mount and the late Dr. Trudy Conway brought him on board for the fall of 2005. "It felt like I had been stubborn and not listening to God, but He was patient with me." Hochschild feels "doubly indebted" to Conway because she welcomed him to campus twice. When he arrived on campus 16 years ago, he was excited to teach in the liberal arts core curriculum and to teach philosophy to the younger seminarians. After a year of living in Fairfield, he moved his family to the house in which they currently reside within walking distance to campus.

The philosopher identifies the university’s core curriculum as one of strongest attributes of our identity: "I care a lot about choosing good texts and a good sequence of courses, but as long as you’re doing something with all the students together, you’re helping them to think as part of a community." He suggests that this sort of cooperative and mutually beneficial academic culture is becoming more of a rarity in higher education and identifies the Mount’s attention to the core curriculum as a "gift." Expanding the influence of university culture to that of our local and national culture, Hochschild says that this sort of common language can help build cohesion within a group of people who feel "increasingly alienated and feel like they don’t share anything with their fellow citizens."

This sort of community-building has been a priority for Hochschild throughout his tenure in Emmitsburg. When asked about his distinctive contribution to the Mount, he pointed to "an emphasis on identifying the connection between our religious and academic mission." He does not see a chasm between the Catholic mission and the liberal arts mission of the university, but rather a relationship of intricate interdependence.

Hochschild not only hopes that the two missions resonate but has invested in action on and off campus that emphasizes their distinct impact. This sort of integration was a priority for him while he was the dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 2009 to 2015 and while he and other faculty members were revising the core curriculum. "In a post-administrative career, it’s the kind of thing I’ve focused on writing and teaching, working with students, arranging conferences, and inviting speakers." With passion and conviction, he reminded me that "the idea of a university grew from the heart of the Church…and the Mount is uniquely positioned to be a university to help people remember that."

In addition to Trudy Conway, Hochschild credits the late Dr. Sue Goliber, professor emerita of history, in helping him clarify his understanding of the relationship between the religious and academic missions of the university. Hochschild recognized that "often the biggest champions aren’t even Catholic." This observation certainly applies to Goliber; while a Protestant, Goliber was "always a champion of the Mount being a Catholic university." This frequent reference to models and mentors was a consistent theme in my conversation with Dr. Hochschild.

It was these mentors who guided him in the ways of teaching college students. Today, he identifies, in an almost instinctual way, "the students" as the best part about teaching at the Mount. Hochschild does not view his relationship with students as one of information provision, but rather as one similar to a craftsman and an apprentice. "We do stuff together and we practice habits together." The art of education for Hochschild is highly personal and far removed from the more mainstream mercenary model of teaching and learning. Dr. Hochschild’s position as a philosophy professor is more than a job, but a vocation in the fullest sense of the word.

While continuing to discuss his place at the Mount, Hochschild identified the grotto as his favorite space on campus; "it was walking around there that I knew I was meant to be here, but I didn’t know why." After 16 years, Hochschild now knows that the reason he was meant to be here was that so "[his] wife could become a Catholic and teach here…That’s a good enough reason."

Dr. Hochschild’s unyielding emphasis on his mentors seems to be an indication that he is a learner as much as he is a teacher. He knows how to learn, and for that reason he knows how to teach other people to learn. Decades from now, I suspect a student writer at the Emmitsburg News-Journal will hear about Josh Hochschild serving as a mentor and model of real learning and exceptional teaching.

Read other articles by Harry Scherer