Moon Township, Pa. - Megan Gold, a junior on the Robert Morris University women's lacrosse team, traveled to Israel this summer for a once-in-a-lifetime experience that combined heritage and competition.

The following is a Q&A RMUColonials.com recently conducted with Gold about her "Birthright" trip and all it entailed:

RMU: Tell us a little bit more about the trip. How did you decide to take it this year?
 
Gold: The Birthright trip is a 10 day trip offered to Jewish students ages 18 through 26. It is essentially a free trip, paid for by sponsors, to explore Israel and learn more about the Jewish history and culture. There are several different groups that sponsor these trips, I went on one run by a group called Amazing Israel.

I decided to take it this year because it seemed the best time to experience this opportunity, being at the halfway point through college. 

RMU: How did you tie lacrosse in with the trip?

Gold: For the second year, Amazing Israel created a Birthright trip made specifically for college lacrosse players at any level, from a club team to a Division I program.

While there, we had a practice and played two games against the Israeli national team. We also spent two days going to schools around Israel and teaching lacrosse to young Israelis in their gym classes.

All 40 of us on this Birthright trip donated a 50-pound bag of lacrosse gear. We took this donated gear to the schools and introduced the game of lacrosse to those students.
 
RMU: What were some of the more memorable moments overall?

Gold: One of my favorite experiences was introducing the game of lacrosse to all these 10-year-old kids. I have never seen so many people so enthused to learn about the game.

One day we hiked Masada and floated in the Dead Sea. That was a pretty awesome day!

The best part was truly exploring this amazing place that deals with so much conflict each and every day. It was an extremely eye-opening trip, both culturally and lacrosse-wise.

RMU: What kind of perspective did the trip give you on your heritage?

Gold: Before this trip, I did not consider myself to be a religious person. Not because I didn't care, but simply because I did not know a ton about my religious background.

Going on the Birthright trip provided me a sense of appreciation and understanding of my religion, where my relatives have come from, and makes me realize how much I still have to learn about what Israelis go through every day.

RMU: What did you learn from your lacrosse experiences over there?

Gold: I learned not to take lacrosse for granted.

I grew up in a place where everyone played lacrosse everyday. Going and teaching the game to these little kids in Israel was truly the best lacrosse-related experience I ever had.

I have never seen anyone so thrilled to learn the game and fall in love with it more quickly than any of those kids I worked with. It reminded me why I love this game so much.

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