Katrina Ong '09
Studied Human and Organizational Development and Psychology at Vanderbilt University. She has worked for companies that serve the healthcare industry in tech, community interventions, and payers. Mostly recently, she has just returned from a 2-year assignment in the UK working on product introduction for the UK, German, and Chinese markets.
"Most tangibly, Houston Christian has provided life-long friends. Having lived in over 5 cities since leaving Houston, the Houston Christian network is expansive and indispensable – I am especially grateful that I had the opportunity to live with a Houston Christian alum and friend in London, to meet with Houston Christian parents in China, and to travel throughout Europe and the US visiting old high school friends. Even in cities that have felt foreign, I found that familiar faces and lifelong relationships can make any place feel like home.
"Most tangibly, Houston Christian has provided life-long friends. Having lived in over 5 cities since leaving Houston, the Houston Christian network is expansive and indispensable – I am especially grateful that I had the opportunity to live with a Houston Christian alum and friend in London, to meet with Houston Christian parents in China, and to travel throughout Europe and the US visiting old high school friends. Even in cities that have felt foreign, I found that familiar faces and lifelong relationships can make any place feel like home.
Apart from rigorous academic training that made slipping into college academics relatively painless, Houston Christian was critical to refining and developing my moral compass. The biblically rooted moral instruction continues to impact the way I consider business decisions and leadership. Specifically, striving for the heart and spirit of a servant leader can prove a challenge in competitive business environments. Having a community both from Houston Christian and Vanderbilt that helps me to recalibrate has been critical.
I am also especially grateful for the community between teachers and students at Houston Christian. Having role models and mentors who truly invested in our holistic development was part of the “magic” of Houston Christian. This focus on developing the whole person – intellect, spirit, body, and heart - was part of the inspiration that drove me to explore the healthcare industry further with a sustained interest in hospice and palliative care. Healthcare has been the intersection of intellectual challenge through untangling a broken macro-system while balancing the very human vulnerability that is most evident in uncertain care situations. This has driven my work on projects related to community level interventions of making the healthy choice the easy choice, to working on projects that drive employee development or organizational performance improvement in healthcare. Most recently, I have been working on product strategy in the healthcare space including go-to-market strategy and change management.
The intellectual and moral foundation at Houston Christian and the deeply rooted friendships developed there continue to shape me and inspire me to pursue more than a career, but rather a vocation."
