While Meredith Monroe (Economics & Business Analytics, '19) was assembling medical kits on a supply base in Israel last November, a Jewish volunteer asked her, “Did you know that Jesus was Jewish?” Yes, she did. “Do you think Jesus meant to start a new religion, or did that just happen?” Monroe explained that Jesus did not start a new religion; he fulfilled Judaism. “I could tell his mind broke a little when I said that,” she said.
Monroe had many similar conversations about Christ when she volunteered for two weeks through Sar-El, an organization that brings volunteers to work on a military base and frees up IDF soldiers for more skilled and dangerous work.
But her time in Israel did not start here. “It was a miracle that I got to go back because the American arm of Sar-El shut down when the war started.” She volunteered only because earning her Master’s in Israel allowed her to participate in Sar-El’s Israel branch. 
Monroe moved to Israel in September of 2021 for a year-long program in Tel Aviv, earning a Master’s in Business with a focus in innovation and entrepreneurship. “It was absolutely terrific. I loved it!” she said. “PHC is definitely harder than your MBA.” She pursued her MBA after 2 gap years working at PHC as a data analyst for admissions and as a financial aid officer.
Despite the COVID lockdown, she was confident the Lord wanted her to go to Israel. “It was absolutely miraculous to see the Lord open the doors to make that possible,” she said. Her program included 39 students from 27 countries. On one hand, she was discouraged by witnessing students’ willingness to cheat. “PHC is a wonderful little nest of incredible students, but honestly it’s discouraging to get into the rest of the world and realize that [PHC] was the exception.” 
On the other hand, doing group projects with other people taught her how to work with people of different cultural values. “What may seem totally crazy and risky as an American is probably very commonplace in another culture. It really taught me where my American presuppositions are,” she said. For example, Israelis live in a high-risk area, and they are more likely to make risky business choices since they see failure as a learning opportunity. One speaker had started 5 companies but 3 had failed. “He treasured the experience of his three failures in the same way he did the experience of his two successes,” Monroe said.
After her program, Monroe moved in with her parents in California and started working as a credit analyst. She switched to working as a utility analyst 9 months ago on the resource planning team for Turlock Irrigation District. “I like working in this field because it’s so under the radar,” she said. The company makes sure that the local district has enough energy resources in the long-term. “Our top priority is reliability. We want to make sure that no matter what happens, the lights still turn on.” 
PHC prepared Monroe both for her time in Israel and also for her job. “We’ve been trained in such a way to think creatively of coming up with good logical, reasonable suggestions that can be tossed around by decision-makers.” PHC also prepared her spiritually. “PHC was the first time I was outside my parents’ protection and control, so learning how to trust God as an individual was something PHC really challenged me and where I really grew,” she said.
Classes at PHC equipped Monroe practically. “My business classes especially have proved so useful, and also the way PHC values rhetoric and communication. That has been invaluable.” She considered herself an average to low speaker at PHC, and she never competed in PHC debate, but people complimented her on her public speaking skills in Israel. In her current job, she’s learning how to communicate through developing reports. “What sort of graph or chart is going to most effectively communicate the information that I want to share? How do I draw that narrative from a sea of numbers and data? That is where my education at PHC has served me well.”
Remembering how she worried about not knowing what was next after PHC, Monroe said, “The Lord provides one day at a time. I think it’s a good thing God doesn’t give us the 10-year plan!”
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