Monica Busch works for the world’s largest social networking company, and it’s her job to help make sure it’s also one of the world’s best places to work. As a member of the “People Growth” team at Facebook, Busch has spent the past several years building and pioneering tools and programs aimed at helping new hires transition and acclimate to the company.

Busch’s impeccable work ethic was apparent even during her undergraduate years at Biola. Not only did she graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communication and a double minor in Christian education and biblical studies, she also managed to do it in just three years — all while being involved in multiple on-campus ministries and maintaining a job.

She recently shared her story with Biola Magazine.

My whole life people have always called me “Miss Monica,” and there was no exception to that at Biola. It’s funny because even in college when I thought I was an adult, my professors all got around to calling me “Miss Monica.”

I often made myself take 8 a.m. classes so I’d have to start my day early, because I was taking so many classes and involved in so many things. Which meant I was sleep-deprived. While I was taking Theology 1 with Dr. Thoennes, I’d make myself sit in the front row and multiple times during the semester, Dr. Thoennes would come up to me after class and say, “Thanks for fighting the good fight today,” because he knew I was fighting to stay awake in his class.

I was trying so hard to find jobs after I graduated. I was sending out resumes, and I wasn’t hearing back from anyone, and then God opened a series of doors that landed me my job at Facebook.

I started out as a conditional worker doing administrative stuff in human resources. It was tough because, at the time, the work I was doing was not very engaging, but I learned that every job is a gift and an opportunity from God. I try to see that any time I’m doing my work, it’s for the Lord.

At the time I started, we had 320 employees and 50 million users. Today we have 5,000-plus employees and 1.15 billion users. I was hired full-time to build an onboarding program since we knew we’d be growing a ton moving forward. While in this role, I built tools, teams and processes to support onboarding new hires from the time they verbally accepted a role to the time they were sitting with their actual teams.

My new role is to make Facebook the best place to work. About four years ago I started on a new team. At the time we were called Culture and Communication. Today, we’re called People Growth. The team has evolved over the years to take on various aspects of making Facebook an amazing place to work.

I’ve gotten to do more in the past six years at Facebook than many get to do in their entire careers. I started shortly after graduating from Biola with little to no relevant experience. During my time at Facebook, I've gotten to co-develop tools for performance management and onboarding, implemented our contingent workforce management program, ran our employee engagement survey for years and just recently gave it a major overhaul.

Being a Christian at Facebook, I'm often surrounded by people with different worldviews and beliefs. Because sharing your opinion is highly valued at Facebook, there are times that people share strong opinions in opposition to what I believe (which, of course, can be challenging). At the same time, I've had tons of opportunities to have open conversations with my co-workers about my beliefs.

I view Facebook as my primary mission field and God has opened doors throughout the years for me to share my faith and be Jesus to my co-workers. Being so open about being a Christian at work brings a very high level of accountability. Most days as I drive to and from work I listen to podcasts of sermons. God often uses them to prepare me for what that day will bring. Despite my best efforts, I am constantly reminded of my desperate need for a Savior.

I think that it’s pretty clear in Scripture we are to care for the weak and for those who don’t have a voice for themselves. My husband and I care a lot for orphans and widows, and we try to be intentional about supporting organizations focused around clean water and human trafficking.

Danny (my husband) and I hope to adopt through the fost-adopt program someday. As we've started researching adoption, we’ve been discouraged by the apparent lack of resources in the Bay Area. So maybe one day, post- Facebook, I'll start a nonprofit to raise awareness and provide resources for families considering foster care or adoption.