By Stephanie Grinnell

Staff Writer

Biddeford resident Kate Quinn Gartland will experience a unique graduation Saturday when she graduates from Saint Joseph’s College in Standish with her master’s degree in nursing at the same time four of her former students will receive their bachelor’s degrees in nursing. 

Gartland taught the students at Biddeford’s Center of Technology (COT), the regional vocational center, when, as high school students, they were enrolled in the medical sciences program. She said three students, Lisa Earnhardt, Brooke Perry and Nicole Lehoux were all exceptional students in high school and she did not expect anything less during their college years.

“I’ve been really impressed with them. And to know I was there with them the first time they gave patient care makes it even more special,” she said.

On a professional level, Gartland said she is glad to see three competent nurses ready to take their place in the health care profession, which she said is understaffed.

“I’m very aware of the big picture and how desperate we are for nurses,” she said.

To that end, Gartland plans to teach nursing students with her freshly minted master’s degree, which took her about three years to earn through distance learning courses at Saint Joseph’s.  

Gartland first realized she would graduate with her former students a few months ago. She had been keeping in touch with Earnhardt through email and knew all three girls were attending Saint Joseph’s.  

“I think it’s very exciting,” Gartland said of graduating with her former students. “It makes me proud to know I had a part in getting them started.”

Perry, 21, of Waterboro, said she has not seen Gartland in a few years and looks forward to sharing the landmark graduation with her teacher.

“I’m so excited she’s graduating with us,” Perry said. “We just loved Ms. Quinn [Gartland]. She was just the best.”

Perry took Gartland’s medical sciences class during her senior year at Biddeford High School. She said she became interested in nursing at a young age.

“I saw my memere go through lung cancer and saw how much the nurses did for her,” Perry said. “It made me really want to help people when they’re sick.” 

She said she also considered elementary education, but after her course at COT, she chose nursing as her future career. At the end of the COT program, Perry took a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) test and maintained her certification through her college years. She was the only one of the three to do so. 

“It was definitely a love of nursing,” she said. 

Perry plans to work with cardiac patients after her graduation. 

Earnhardt said she has been interested in nursing her entire life. She joked her mother always told her she would be involved in the medical field because she was born in a ambulance on the way to the hospital. She credits Gartland with starting her on the path to becoming a nurse. 

“She got me started in the CNA program,” she said. 

Earnhardt said she kept in touch with Gartland after she graduated from COT because Gartland “is an outstanding person.”

“She’s just one of those people you want to be near,” Earnhardt said. 

She plans to pursue a career in geriatrics, working with older patients, based on experiences she had during high school and college clinical rotations at various hospitals and nursing homes. 

Lehoux said she became interested in nursing through watching numerous family members coping with cancer.

“I saw a lot of the suffering and chemo and medical interventions,” she said. “I was always intrigued.”

Lehoux said she plans to take care of patients after they have knee surgery or gastrointestinal procedures, a field called med-surg.

Lehoux said she only found out Gartland would be graduating at the same time a couple of weeks ago. 

“Kate [Gartland] helped me get into nursing. It’s definitely a special thing,” she said.

Earnhardt said she is “very excited” to be graduating at the same time as Gartland.

“It’s like an honor, she taught me everything I know,” Earnhardt said. “Not only that, she’s graduating too, which is exciting for her and us.”

Gartland said there is a planned pinning ceremony the night before graduation that will be more intimate than the graduation ceremony the following day. She said she is looking forward to seeing all three of her former students and congratulating them.  

Perry, Earnhardt and Lehue credit the COT program with giving them a firm foundation to begin with during their college years. 

“Every day there was something different to do, from anatomy and physiology to labs to clinicals,” Perry said. “We did a little bit of everything.” 

Lehoux said she felt she was farther ahead of her college classmates because of the program at COT, which covered much of the freshman year material.

“I felt like I was ahead of people. I had an extra sense of confidence,” she said.

Gartland said the COT medical sciences program draws students from other school districts and is always filled to capacity. She taught the clinical portion of the program for a total of six years.

“I kept in touch with several students over the years and they always say A and P [anatomy and physiology] taught there helped in college,” Gartland said. 

She said a number of the students who take the medical sciences program at COT go on to pursue nursing in college.

“It’s a really great program,” she said. “It’s the program that brings other students in, from Biddeford, Kennebunk, Old Orchard Beach, Thornton Academy and Massabesic.”

Lehoux said it was also helpful to have friends in the program and in college taking the same courses and said it helped all of them build stronger relationships. 

“I think it helped because we all went together, we knew people in the program,” she said. “After all, nursing is about a constant learning process.”

A fourth student, Melissa Gionest, who took the medical sciences program taught by Gartland a year prior to Earnhardt, Perry and Lehoux will graduate Saturday as well.