Student Service Trip to Guatemala Called Life-Changing for Some, Career-Affirming for Others

Sean Hennessey

Date

January 27, 2026

Topics

Area of Expertise

Rehabilitation

Second-year physical therapy students helped treat approximately 165 patients in two regions

Travelling to a new country always provides one with a new experience; there’s the culture, language, food, people, and sights to immerse oneself in. When you can combine that with helping and teaching, that’s a bonus. And that was the focal point for second-year physical therapy students who travelled to Guatemala earlier this month (January 2 – 11) on the MGH Institute’s Physical Therapy Program’s annual student service trip to Central America.

“The idea that I could travel to a country I have never been to,” said student Jirou Duffy, “and give a piece of myself to the people there without asking for much back, definitely appealed to me as a way of spreading the culture of movement and rehabilitation and putting smiles on people's faces.”

For student Kenna Reichner, who has lived abroad in three countries, this opportunity was familiar.

“As soon as I saw this trip posted, it just reminded me of why I applied to the MGH Institute PT program in the first place,” said Reichner. “It combined my love of traveling in Latin America with serving under-served populations that I saw when I lived in Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia.”

Led by Assistant Professor Jane Baldwin, overseeing her seventh trip to Guatemala, the eight students, guided by clinical instructors, travelled to two sites: Villa Nueva and Canillá, each vastly different in their locations and resources, yet each the same in that patients were seeking to improve their function through movement health.

“At the end of every session, just seeing how appreciative those patients were,” noted student Abby Schmitt. “Whether it be giving us a hug or saying how much they appreciated this session we just had, or even some of the kids wanting to take a picture and putting their arm around us just spoke volumes.”

Dr. Baldwin and the team of MGH Institute students collaborated with Move Together, an organization that initiates clinics in globally underserved areas to address movement, health, and physical therapy in a sustainable way.

“In Canillá and Villa Nueva , these clinics are really the only game in town,” recounted Dr. Baldwin. “There aren’t any other physical therapy services, so everyone comes to those two clinics in each area, and you need to be prepared for anything.”

During that week, most any condition did walk through the door as students saw the full spectrum of challenges: children with developmental disabilities; survivors of stroke, motor vehicle, and motorcycle accidents; patients with Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, and Bell’s Palsy; and those coping with low back pain, fractures, spinal cord injury, and limb loss.

In Villa Nueva, the first stop, the group worked in a city clinic where they collaborated with Guatemalan physical therapists and physical therapist students.

“We were pretty much working alongside them, learning from them, and them learning from us,” said student Kate Rowland. “It was really interesting to see if their approaches differed at all, and what exercises they were coming up with that we hadn't thought of before, and vice versa.”

“We compared and contrasted our ideas with theirs and filled in the gaps to better drive their plan of care with the patients we were seeing,” added Schmitt.

Given the differences in education, some students expected a world of differences in approach, but that’s not how it worked out. In fact, Guatemalan students taught their visitors a few things too.

“There's a lot of things that we can learn from Guatemalan students, and there's a lot of things they can learn from us,” said Reichner, who referenced scapular mobilizations suggested for treatment by the Guatemalan students. “I said, ‘I don't know how to do that,’ and so, it taught me not to assume there are going to be these drastic, differences just because you're going to a different country. It was cool to have a collaborative environment like that, to be able to learn skills that I haven’t been taught yet, but they had been taught, and vice versa.”

Group of people posing for a photo — MGH Institute students, clinical instructors, Guatemalan physical therapists and physical therapist students outside the clinic in Villa Nueva on the last day.

People posing in front of a clinic — Clinical instructors outside the Villa Nueva Clinic: Efosa Guobadia (Co-founder of Move Together), Heather Molind (IHP DPT Class of 2012), Natalia Davila, Melina Graf, Jennifer Rusher Sharma (IHP DPT Class of 2017), Laura Vinci de Vanegas ( IHP DPT Class of 2017), Naseem Chatiwala (IHP MS Class of 2004) and Jane Baldwin.

People posing in front of a volcano — MGH Institute students (l to r) Kenna Reichner, Hannah Labrie, Shannon Ferrando, Abby Schmitt, Kate Rowland, Elena Bramante, Jirou Duffy, and Kirby Impoinvil after hiking up Mount Pacaya, and seeing the volcano.

Girl playing with child outside — Abby Schmitt with 7-year-old patient who presented with R-sided hemiparesis at the clinic in Canillá

Group posing together outside — MGH Institute students, clinical instructors, Guatemalan physical therapists and physical therapist students outside the clinic in Villa Nueva on the last day.

Kate Rowland with Patient and CI — In Canillá, Kate Rowland (middle) performs a technique on a patient while clinical instructor Natalia Davila (right) advises on proper form.

Students providing treatment care outside — Jirou Duffy and Kenna Reichner providing treatment and patient education with Guatemalan physical therapist Natalia Davilia (seated, back to camera) supervising

Group of people posing outside — In Canillá, where some MGH Institute team members were playing games with children (from l to r) Jane Baldwin, patient, Natalia Dávila, and Kate Rowland.

Two women helping child inside — Kenna Reichner (l) and Heather Molind treat a child with Cerebral Palsy at the clinic in Villa Nueva.

Group of people helping men walk — At the clinic in Villa Nueva, Abby Schmitt (in 617 shirt) stabilizes the knee while Kenna Reichner (left, in Tom Brady shirt) provides support at the hips to help a patient with a spinal cord injury stand.

After two full days in the clinic, the team spent a day driving to Canillá, a tiny and rural village in the mountains where mostly Indigenous Mayan will travel seven hours or more just to get a session or two of care. Here, MGH Institute students provided hands on care and helped Gloria, the community health worker who treats patients by herself, with updating each patient’s care plan.

“Gloria is absolutely fantastic,” gushed Dr. Baldwin, who regularly answers questions from Gloria throughout the year. “She's had no formal training, it's been all on-the-job training, but she asks phenomenal, high-level questions and is able to provide care that’s far above expectations. And the students were very pleasantly surprised and in awe of Gloria and her knowledge, despite never having been to PT school.

“So, the main focus when we go to Canillá is reassessing all of the clients, or completing evaluations on new clients, and then passing that information off to Gloria for her to carry out those treatments.”

Along with the language barrier – Indigenous Mayan speak Kʼicheʼ – students had to adjust to provided treatment without the equipment they’re accustomed to.

“We had to shift our minds a little bit and be creative with the resources that we did have,” recalled Schmitt. "We had to rethink our interventions to minimize the need for space and equipment. When the clinic became busy and space was limited, we used the patient’s wheelchair as the treatment surface instead of transferring them to a plinth (padded table). This required adjusting our thinking based on the patient’s starting point, their specific challenges, and modifying our approach accordingly.”

In all, the students saw approximately 165 patients during their four days of clinic duty – diagnoses and challenges they had never seen or treated before - making for a busy yet educational experience, which was the point.

“It helped me grow as a clinician,” said Rowland. ”It's easy to lose your confidence and define yourself by test grades and the school structure, but seeing how things we've learned in the class come out and being able to implement them and actually help people, while building rapport with these patients and having a positive impact on their day helped build my confidence a lot.”

“I hope they took away that you can still provide individualized, specific, and meaningful interventions without a lot of equipment,” said an optimistic Baldwin. “I think they made connections and saw the importance of listening to patients and finding out what is important to them, what their goals are, and how to meet the patient where they are at to meet those goals.”

The trip afforded some cultural experiences too and included a coffee tour, seeing a volcano by hiking up Mount Pacaya, and touring the city of Antigua. But it was the day-to-day interactions with patients that were the dominant takeaway.

“This trip ignited a fire in me that service needs to play a role in my clinical career somehow, someway,” revealed Reichner. “Whether that's going on this trip again in a couple years when I'm a clinical instructor, or even creating an organization that does something similar, but in a different country, or joining another service group elsewhere, this trip has really ignited a fire in me.”

“It was an incredibly eye-opening trip, and the experiences with the numerous students and patients I encountered there are things that I will cherish for a very long time,” concluded Duffy. “This trip has definitely refined the lens of which I view the world of physical therapy, and I am now more confident in my abilities to treat complex cases in any environment.”

“This trip allowed me to grow not only as an individual, but also as a PT student,” reflected Schmitt. “Not only was I navigating ways to communicate with patients of a different culture, but I was also finding ways to help them when I didn’t have the equipment that I’m used to. I saw that even a slight change can make the world of difference for someone in a low-resource community, especially, if they don't have the resources that we do.”

“The trip was definitely life-changing,” declared Rowland. “It shaped what I want to do with my career a little bit more and made me realize that I do want to pursue opportunities like this and serve underserved populations as much as I can.”