Hannah Hansen had never stood before an audience like it. She was looking out over a crowd made up entirely of theologians and scholars. And she was preparing to talk about sex.
Rewind to Hansen’s senior theology capstone project, December 2023. With only one semester to go before graduating with not one but two degrees (in theology and psychology), Hansen delivered a presentation entitled, “Let’s Talk About Sex: Reclaiming Sex Positivity in Song of Solomon and What That Means for Christian Sexual Ethics.”
“I discussed the harmful ways in which the Christian church has often talked about sex and sexual ethics and tried to highlight a contemporary model of how we should talk about sex within the church by highlighting three different themes related to healthy sexual ethics that I identified in the book Song of Solomon,” says Hansen.
That presentation must’ve made quite an impression, because six months later, she, along with fellow TLU alumni Jennie Smith and Elaina Brooks, were headed to Indiana—to St. Mary's College at Notre Dame. They’d been invited to accompany Dr. Amanda Kaminski, assistant professor of theology and director of TLU’s Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship program, to the 2024 meeting of the American Society of Missiology. The group created a panel session titled “The Missional Priorities of Gen Z: Listening to Four Scholar-Practitioners from the ‘Least Religious Generation,’” with each presenting on academic papers they’d written highlighting their thoughts on topics important to Gen Z in the realm of theology and spirituality. The theme of the 2024 meeting was Mission with Children, Youth, and Young Adults, and Kaminski had recognized the importance of having some actual young people there to present.
Thus, the crowd of theologians and scholars Hansen was facing at the beginning of our story. A nerve-racking situation, to say the least. “I pushed through despite the nerves and presented alongside my colleagues,” Hansen says, “and was met with an immense amount of support, excitement, and gratitude for being able to speak on something that a lot of people are afraid to speak about. It was so completely outside my comfort zone and so fun and exciting and honoring to do. I wish I could fully put into words how important this experience was for me.”
Since that conference, Hansen, along with the others on the panel, has been invited to publish her work. “They are all brilliant people,” she says of her colleagues. “I feel so honored to have my first paper published alongside them.” The paper has already been through edits, revisions, and rewrites, and is currently in the peer review phase. Hansen anticipates more edits and revisions in the coming months but expects that the paper will be published in 2025. “I still sometimes can’t comprehend that I have been given the opportunity to be able to publish my undergraduate thesis right out of college. It is truly such a blessing and an honor.”
Back in college, Hansen had made it her goal to build a career in the ministry field, and she’s been doing just that since graduating. She’s currently leading a new youth initiative in the Seguin area—a collaborative youth ministry program known as Compass Cooperative. “It has been my goal for a long time to do youth ministry, and this job has given me the opportunity to not only do youth ministry, but to help grow an entirely new model of doing youth ministry,” she says. “Compass is comprised of the middle school and high school youth of four churches in the Seguin area that wanted to work together to provide a welcoming and affirming community for youth to come and explore their faith and build their relationship with God in a safe space through different bible studies, games, and other fun opportunities with peers in their community.” Hansen eased into the role on a part-time basis while finishing up her last semester at TLU, then transitioned to full time. “It truly has been a wonderful experience so far to get to know all of the kids and walk alongside them in their faith journey.”
The work is most definitely close to her heart. “Working with all of the youth, getting to witness God working in their lives, and getting to help them live into who God has created them to be has to be the most rewarding part of what I do,” she says. “Each of these kids bring me so much joy, laughter, and hope and I feel so blessed to be able to know them and be a part of their life.”
She also finds joy in the fact that together, they are creating a community. “The unique thing about working with kids from four different churches is that most of them already know of each other from school or extracurriculars in the community, so getting to watch them go from acquaintances to friends because of the community we have cultivated through Compass is truly amazing.”
She gives her alma mater a lot of credit for preparing her for her job. “While ministry can sometimes throw a lot of curveballs at you and college can’t prepare you for every scenario, my time at TLU helped prepare me for so much, both in my professional role and in my own personal life. Not only was it from the classes that I took, but also the mentors I had, the friends I made, and the opportunities I received along the way.”
Hansen has a few words of wisdom for students still in attendance at TLU. “Soak up absolutely everything that you can. Be present in your classes and class discussions, take classes that sound interesting, and utilize the professors! They are there to help you and can offer you so many opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom if you just take the time to talk to them.”
These days, when she’s not at work, Hansen enjoys hanging out with friends or her cat Mimsy, watching movies or TV, scrapbooking, quilting, painting, and getting back over to campus to lend her voice to the TLU choir as an alumni participant—“a wonderful way for me to continue to make music and be part of a community of young adults.”
And those friends she made at TLU? They’re still very much a part of her life, and although she has countless fond memories of her college years, the best ones all center around a group of cherished friends. “The greatest gift that TLU gave me was my three best friends who I was blessed to live with on campus for the majority of my time at TLU,” she says. “We lived in the south apartments and lovingly became known as ‘the ladies of Kramer 4.’ We made that space our home and I will forever cherish the late-night talks, the meals that we cooked together, the celebrations of each other’s accomplishments and the comforting of one another during our hardest moments. We shared so much laughter and love in our time together at TLU and I will never be able to put into words how special that time was for me.”
Words also fall short of the larger message that the life Hansen is building conveys, but this much is certain: she stands on a firm foundation, woven through with memories and friendships; she lives in a state of gratitude; and she’s ready to move forward, heart first—even beyond her comfort zone—in faith.