Keeping Ashland Healthy - Episode 120 – Partnering for Change | Josh SumpterKeeping Ashland Healthy - Episode 120 – Partnering for Change | Josh Sumpter
Keeping Ashland Healthy
On the next episode of Keeping Ashland Healthy, I sit down with Josh Sumpter from Ashland University — We talk about the spiritual lives of college students, why mentorship matters more than ever, and how faith, community, and purpose can help young...
28:07•31 Mar 2026
Partnering for Change: Faith, Mentors and Mental Health on Campus
Episode Overview
- Treat university students as a gift to be stewarded well, rather than as stereotypes or problems to manage.
- See spiritual life as a core foundation of wellbeing, not a side activity to be used only in emergencies.
- Recognise that students juggle heavy daily pressures and often lock away important parts of themselves, including faith.
- Show up where students already are, ask about their stories, and be quick to listen and slow to speak.
- Encourage service and outward focus, which can deepen students’ sense of home, purpose, and connection.
“I believe that each student that comes to Ashland University is uniquely called to come to this particular institution and that they are a gift.”
How do young adults find solid ground in a season full of change? This conversation between chaplain and campus leader Josh Sumter and host David Ross looks at that question through the lens of faith, mental health, and the pressures facing today’s university students.
Speaking as Executive Director of the Office of Christian Ministry and University Chaplain at Ashland University, Josh shares how mentors shaped his own first‑generation college journey and how that now drives his work with students, staff, and faculty.
He recalls a key professor who “modeled the way of being a teacher that showed up in a very pastoral way,” and how that example still guides how he cares for students who feel “like [they’re] wandering in the wilderness.” The episode digs into the strain of modern student life: financial worries, family expectations, social media pressure, loneliness, and extended adolescence.
Josh draws on research around “daily life management” and the “identity lockbox” to explain why so many young adults feel fragmented, with parts of themselves—especially faith—pushed to the back pocket and only brought out in a crisis.
Rather than treating spirituality as a weekend hobby, Josh argues for it as a base layer of wellbeing, saying, “There has to be something that actually transcends some of my best efforts because what we’re doing is not working.” He talks about helping first‑year students build a “spiritual sense of home” so that faith, community, and purpose become building blocks for life, not add‑ons.
Parents, church leaders, and community members also get practical ideas: see students as a gift, drop the stereotypes, move toward them, and, most of all, listen. As Josh puts it, some students simply need someone to say, “I’d love to hear your story,” and mean it. If you care about young adults who are stressed, searching, or slipping through the cracks, this conversation might spark a new way to support them—who could you show up for this week?
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