Students Head to Guatemala on Nursing's First Study Abroad Trip

Published 10.13.2016

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Students Ashley M. Otto and Kelsey L. Maneval pack Penn College backpacks that they’ll leave behind for residents of Nueva Santa Rosa, Guatemala.Picture books and Penn College backpacks are among items donated by the campus community for the remote village.Friend Bear finds a seat in a suitcase for the trip to Central America. Students glean details from nursing instructor Christine B. Kavanagh. From left are H. Alex Simcox, Christina M. Mossman, Ashley M. Otto, Katherine Santoianni, Maneval and Kavanagh.A pile of books will help supply a library or serve as waiting-room entertainment. Five nursing students packed supplies this week that they’ll take to the small village of Nueva Santa Rosa in Guatemala. The students are enrolled in a short-term study abroad course, the first for nursing. They’ll be joined by Christine B. Kavanagh, instructor of nursing, at a clinic in a remote area of coffee plantations southeast of the capital, Guatemala City. The Penn College group will join a larger group of volunteers from Glens Falls Medical Mission, a group based in Glens Falls, New York. The students gathered this week to pack luggage with a variety of donated items, including picture books, toothbrushes, stuffed animals, and touches of Penn College that include Wildcat hand sanitizer donated by Penn College Health Services, and Penn College backpacks donated by Admissions. Many of the other items were donated by fellow students and nursing faculty via collection stations set up by the Student Nurses' Association. Students making the trip are Kelsey L. Maneval, of McAlisterville; Christina M. Mossman, of Wellsboro; Ashley M. Otto, of Lehighton; H. Alex Simcox, of Montgomery; and Katherine Santoianni, of Williamsport.