Meet Our Students
Leah Jutras
- Hometown
- Hebron
- Major
- Natural and applied sciences
Leah Jutras knows that sometimes living your dream can become a nightmare. Luckily, she woke up at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College.
For two years, Jutras studied nursing at USM's main campuses. The program offered everything she’d hoped for since she was 16 and she began work as a nurse’s assistant. When a roommate decided to transfer to LAC, Jutras followed along, intent on simply completing her degree in Lewiston. Location was secondary because, as Jutras puts it, she was “eating, sleeping, and breathing nursing.”
Turns out, that was the problem.
“It just made me sick,” Jutras says of the pace she had set for herself. “I was fragilely thin and my attitude was different. I didn’t enjoy nursing as much as I remembered enjoying it. And I knew the stress would only get worse once I got into the field.”
At about the same time, a relative suffering from leukemia began work with a holistic nurse practitioner. He gave up drug therapy for a sharp focus on diet and exercise. The results were astounding. She says, “That made me a believer in the benefits of proper nutrition and exercise.”
A friend in the LAC administration suggested a change in major. With a few more courses, Jutras could explore her passion for holistic health through a degree in natural and applied sciences and a career as a life coach.
“I want to work with people who have been through life’s stresses and want to implement healthier lifestyle choices,” she says. “Because that’s the exact situation I was in, and that’s what made me so passionate about holistic health.”
