A Stonehill College student was seriously injured in a bicycle crash in Spain last week while studying abroad in France, the college said.
Lauren Rauseo, a junior at the private Catholic college in Easton, suffered a traumatic brain injury and numerous fractures, leading to multiple surgeries and treatment in an intensive care unit, according to two GoFundMe pages that are raising money to assist her family. The pages said Rauseo had been placed in a medically induced coma.
Stonehill College confirmed Rauseo was injured in a bicycle accident in Spain on March 17. The college’s campus ministry recently held a Mass to pray for her healing, a spokesperson said.
“The Stonehill College community is praying for Lauren’s full recovery and offers support to her family,” the college said in a statement.
Rauseo’s family could not be reached Sunday night. Fund-raising organizers wrote on GoFundMe that the family is hoping to transfer Rauseo to a specialized pediatric intensive care trauma unit in Boston. The two pages had raised more than $214,000 as of Sunday night.
“The suddenness of this catastrophe has left Lauren’s family, and all of us who love her, grappling with the profound sense of helplessness,” organizers wrote on one of the pages. “Being thousands of miles away has only intensified our anxiety and desire to do something-anything-to aid in her recovery. Lauren’s parents have dropped everything to be by her side, their lives turned upside down as they navigate this nightmare.”
Rauseo, who is from Londonderry, N.H., and is double-majoring in English and communication, was recently awarded a $3,000 scholarship from the US Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program to help support her study abroad experience in Paris during the spring semester, according to a Stonehill College article about the award.
“Receiving this scholarship means the world to me,” Rauseo said in the article. “This aid allows me to fully enjoy this opportunity without having to worry about finances.”
The school said Rauseo was attending classes in France while living with a host family and another student from Tennessee.
“I believe studying abroad is helping me become a more worldly individual,” she said. “I am meeting a variety of people from different backgrounds and being exposed to new languages and cultures. I am also working hard to become more fluent in French. I’ve dedicated eight years to learning the language and I’m quite passionate about learning it.”
Nick Stoico can be reached at [email protected].