CINCINNATI — Sometimes you have to get 3,000 miles away from where you live to see your life.
“There's an animistic nature about or animistic-like feeling about nature, and I definitely got to connect with that again,” said Nicolas Judge.
A veteran of the Marine Corps, Nicolas is now focused on being a nursing student at Xavier University. He recently went on an eight-day expedition in a remote area of the Wrangell Mountain Range, two miles from the Yukon border in the interior part of Alaska.
For him, the expedition mirrored past deployments in the sense that everyone in the camp had a role and only had each other to get through the eight days.
“Whenever we'd go on, on any kind of mission or like a field operation, I would immediately disconnect and that the only thing I'd be doing there was what I was doing right in front of me,” Judge said. “And that's definitely the appeal that I had with the expeditions.”
Dr. Leon Chartrand has led these expeditions for 14 years.
“First and foremost, the benefit is feeling small, being in a place and feeling small, but yet part of something greater that we don't necessarily know,” said Chartrand. “It makes sense, even if we can't make sense of it.”
While the expeditions are open to all Xavier students, this particular Alaskan expedition was focused on veteran and military-affiliated students.
Franklin McCoy-Ebersole is an assistant expedition guide, Xavier student and Marine Corps veteran.
“I wouldn't really consider myself to be overly religious, but the locations that we go to, for me, it's the closest thing to sacred ground I've been able to find,” he said. “It allows you to completely detach from everything that's going on in your life. And it can really give you the opportunity to focus internally.”
McCoy-Ebersole said it can take a couple of days for that internal search to begin for students, having shed the life back on campus in Cincinnati and being disconnected from the outside world.
“That's when we realize our students have fully immersed themselves in the environment they're in. And they're no longer thinking about themselves — they're thinking about other people, the wildlife, the weather, things like that,” he said.
There’s no coursework during the eight-day expedition, however, students are required to write an essay when they get back about what they experienced. Chartrand encourages the students to journal to help document what they’re experiencing.
“It's been my experience that having a program for veterans, particularly when they come to college after having served, it allows them to meet peers who have similar, you know, experiences in that,” Chartrand said. “And that's important for the college experience here at Xavier, rather than being around just 18- and 22-year-old sometimes can be isolating.”
For Nicolas Judge, that was another reason to go on this particular expedition.
“It was nice to see that there are other veterans that I could talk to, it's definitely an opportunity to relate to others. And it definitely builds a sense of community, especially within Xavier and then within such a small community within Xavier,” Judge said.
He said he’s met lifelong friends by taking part in the experience. He also fulfilled his credits for his philosophy and theology classes over the eight-day adventure.
The expedition brochure says the core credits range from six to nine credits depending on the trip. The core credits include philosophy, theology, biology, English and history. The trips are not included in the student’s regular tuition.
The next expedition is to Antarctica in December. Following that, Chartrand has trips planned for Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, Yellowstone, Greenland and Iceland as well as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Students can find out more information on the website xavierexpeditions.com.
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