A nursing student from Scarborough will not be taking any Christmas vacation this year.

Instead, Katherine Gadbois said she will “put my time toward people who need it.”

Gadbois is a member of a team of Saint Joseph’s College of Maine students who will spend winter break volunteering in destitute countries in hopes of bettering the lives of the less fortunate. Through the process of building homes and schools and working in medical clinics, the students can see tangible evidence that their hard work is beneficial to the local community struggling in poverty.

But, while they’re focused on serving others, what usually ends up happening is the students – accustomed to America’s excesses – are themselves benefited by the life-changing experience.

Dr. Steven Bridge, a theology professor at the Standish college overlooking Sebago Lake, has led the trips almost every year and has seen participation in the humanitarian aid trips grow. In 2004, only a handful of students went to Haiti. This year, 40 students – a record number – are going to two missions sites in Haiti and Guatemala.

The service trips take place during the college’s one-month winter break. A group of 17 students and advisers will travel to Blanchard, a village a few miles outside of Port au Prince, Haiti, from Dec. 27-Jan. 3. Another group of 23 travels to San Antonio Suchitepe?quez, a village about three hours west of Guatemala City, Guatemala, Jan. 4-11.

“It’s inherent to our mission as a value-based school,” Bridge said, “that we try to instill in our students a concern for others, especially those who are in need. And so this is an opportunity to reach out to them. In light of all we have here in the United States – certainly we have a lot more opportunities, we have a lot more resources at our disposal – this an opportunity to share what we have with those who are not as fortunate.”

The weeklong work trips, which are coordinated through Massachusetts-based Partners in Development, are voluntary and offer no course credit. But the interaction with a different culture, with many residents living in substandard conditions, is an education in itself.

“It’s a great cultural experience for the participants, especially for college students, to get them out of the bubble that their life has become, and to expose them to new cultures, new languages, new ways of thinking, new perspectives,” Bridge said.

Bridge meets with the students a few times toward the end of the fall semester to discuss the history and culture of their chosen destination, as well as what kind of work they will be doing. Since the college offers a nursing program, nursing students will be paired with licensed doctors and nurses from Partners in Development to work in medical clinics.

The other students will work on construction projects, building schools, water supply systems and latrines, “and one of the major things we do is building cinder block homes,” Bridge said.

Bridge said the students usually come back from the trip transformed.

“I think many go into it with the mindset that these people are really, really poor and we’re going to go down and we’re going to help them,” Bridge said. “I think for many of them they equate poverty with depression and sadness and they expect these people to be moping around and just being miserable. Well, they get down there and they see these people in these poor living conditions, but the people are genuinely happy and just really very joyful and life-filled people. So it’s kind of shocking to the average American that people could have so little and still be so happy. And I think that’s a huge lesson in and of itself.”

‘Looking ?forward to it’

Gadbois, a freshman nursing major from Scarborough, is headed to Haiti. She saw the experience listed on the college’s website and thought it would be a good opportunity to get into a real clinic after a semester of study.

“Since I’m a nursing student, I can’t really study abroad or anything so I thought it would be a good idea to see another part of the world and help somebody else through service,” she said. “I also wanted to do something for other people and put my time toward people who need it on my Christmas break.”

Since first-year students don’t get much hands-on teaching in a clinical setting, except for a simulation mannequin, interacting with patients under the tutelage of a licensed doctor or nurse should be eye-opening, she said.

“I’m still a freshman so I don’t have a lot of experience with the actual nursing, but it will be interesting to see and experience,” Gadbois said.

“I’d definitely say I’m excited. I’m a little nervous because I haven’t been to a country like that,” she said, “but I’m definitely looking forward to it.”

For the ninth year, Dr. Steven Bridge, left, a professor of theology at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, has organized humanitarian aid trips involving students, faculty and staff at the school. Among the participants in this year’s trips to Haiti and Guatemala are, from left. student Kathryn Bois of Westbrook, Camilla Fecteau of Raymond, a biology lab instructor, and student Louis Girlando.   
Erica Bridge, the 13-year-old daughter of Saint Joseph’s College theology professor Steven Bridge, has gone on two previous humanitarian aid trips with the college and is headed back again this year. She is pictured with Antony Rodriguez of Guatemala.  
Katherine Gadbois