The First to Volunteer
By Shannon Donnelly
Shining trophies and multi-colored ribbons clutter every inch of Esabelle Gervasio’s desk, while dozens of medals drape on her bedroom door in Niskayuna, New York. These accolades represent years of athletic and academic achievements, but only capture a small portion of who Esa is, and what she can do.
And she does it all. From being the captain of the Marist Swimming and Diving team to volunteering as a campus COVID-19 tester, Esa is known amongst Marist faculty and students for her energy, ambition and, as she calls it, insatiable desire to learn more.
“I thrive on being busy,” she says. “I schedule my life down to the last 15 minutes.”
Being homeschooled, Gervasio says she had ample time, which ignited her need to keep busy. It resulted in a love for sports and learning. In high school, she enrolled in math courses at SUNY Albany while continuing to practice gymnastics at a competitive level. When she suffered a season-ending foot injury, she skipped bed-rest and was right back on her feet. Esa was looking for something new to dive into — or rather off of. She began diving in September of her senior year of high school. By November, Esa was committed to Marist’s Division 1 Diving team as the only person on the team who hadn’t been diving for years.
Equally humble as she is gifted, Esa immediately credits the impressive feat to her coaches. “It was amazing and honestly I owe it all to them,” she says. “My coaches are amazing people. They took a chance on me. They were like ‘Alright, we believe in you, so show us you’re worth it.’”
Esa instantly felt at home during her recruitment trip to campus, but the various medical research opportunities at Marist was the ultimate push. Esa’s been set on pursuing medicine since a young age, but her interest for the field started with a mistake. At eleven years old, a fracture in her foot was misdiagnosed as a tendon disease. The medical mishap kept the young gymnast in a boot for three years and resulted in two surgeries, followed by a long line of injuries that eventually ended her gymnastics career.
“After that, I made it my goal to see all aspects of medicine, the good and the bad,” she says. “I wanted to see everything. From then on, everything I did was about getting hands on experience in these places to the best of my ability.”
From nursing homes to physical occupational therapy facilities, Esa made it her mission to get experience at every corner of the healthcare industry. To start, she volunteered at the Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady with a physical therapist during her freshman year of high school. Eventually, Esa ended up at St. Peter’s Hospital working as a patient care technician on a cardiac detox unit while coaching gymnastics and balancing her high school curriculum.
Illustration by Madeline Pastan
When she came to Marist and began taking general education classes, Esa found herself with a startling amount of down time. “Freshman year was my quietest year ever,” she admits. “I was weirded out.”
Predictably, the rest of her freshman year was dedicated to getting involved, both on campus and in the surrounding area. Esa was offered a job coaching gymnastics at a local gym in Poughkeepsie and joined the Honors Program in her second semester. When sophomore year rolled around, she became a Resident Assistant for the Upper Fulton townhouses and was already scouting potential research opportunities, which are usually reserved for upperclassmen.
Esa’s passion for volunteering comes from watching her parents and childhood gymnastics coach dedicate themselves to service. “They always approached things as ‘look at the situation and then look at who you can help,’” she says. “That's how I always approach life. I want to be around and help people when I can.”
As someone who is most comfortable in the chaos of endless meetings, deadlines and responsibilities, it’s no surprise that when the COVID-19 pandemic put life on pause last March, Esa didn’t know what to do with herself. “When COVID hit, I was distraught and totally lost.”
While her peers left Marist to be with their families at the start of the pandemic, Esa volunteered to resume her role as an RA on campus until the second week of the extended spring break. Once she was sent home, Esa began working at her local ShopRite and volunteering at the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. She helped organize and distribute everything from food supplies to children’s toys. At the same time, she continued coaching gymnastics over Zoom while finishing up her classes online. For Esa, it was business as usual, even in a pandemic.
Over a year later, Esa has now settled into a new schedule that somehow keeps her just as busy as before. Although her final diving season has been cancelled, she continues to fill her time working as a medical assistant at the Bone and Joint Center in Albany and a volunteer for Marist’s COVID testing program.
While she had to give up her more recent position as an Assistant Resident Director so that she could live at home this semester, Esa still drives two hours to-and-from Marist every Monday and Friday to attend her in-person classes and labs, which are the highlight of her senior year.
After graduating from Marist in May, Esa knows exactly what comes next: a full-time position working as a medical assistant under orthopedic surgeons at her current hospital in the summer and fall. This will be followed by medical school applications in the spring. Esa will be on track to become an orthopedic surgeon and eventually work for Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organization that provides free surgeries in countries crippled by endemic diseases. And if for some odd reason that plan doesn’t work out, Esa has a back-up plan, and a back-up plan for the back-up plan.
“I have plans A through Z,” she says with a laugh.
While Esa has given her time volunteering on-campus or in the community, she’s felt the support and influence of those around her. “Each one of the roles I had — be it a captain, an RA, a research assistant, or a volunteer with the COVID testing — each person I report to for those roles has had a hand in shaping me as a human being,” she says. “All the people at Marist are so supportive of everything that you’re doing and are so willing to work with you, and that’s something that has made my impossible schedule possible.”
In four short years, Esa capitalized on every opportunity to give back and leaves behind a legacy of service, compassion, and tenacity that will be remembered throughout the Marist community and beyond.
for the record uncut
object photography
Photography by Bobby Oliver
For this year’s project, we asked our Changemakers to bring items that had meaning to them to the shoot.
“The objects I brought to the shoot were all objects that represent things which have played a big role in my life during my time at Marist. The School of Science has given me many opportunities, not just through the offered courses, but also through amazing mentorship by fellow students and professors. I was lucky enough that even during the pandemic, I was able to be given an opportunity to help out on campus, knowing my interest in helping out however I could and my interest in medicine, the professors allowed me to volunteer to work COVID surveillance testing.
Diving was also something that was an incredible experience for me. It allowed me opportunities not just to compete and challenge myself athletically, but to participate in community outreach and find friends who are like family as well. At Marist I have been fortunate to be able to have a wide range of opportunities which have helped prepare me for my future and in my pursuit of a career in medicine.
I have learned a lot from these opportunities in particular, that in everything you do, you have the opportunity to, and can make a difference for someone. All of these objects represent experiences and opportunities, along with all the people who have offered me overwhelming support, which I am incredibly thankful for and makes them meaningful to me.”