• Hometown: Windham, New Hampshire

Lots of little girls say the want to be a nurse when they grow up, but for Maura, it stuck. And she chose URI as the place to become a nurse because of its reputation and location near beaches and big cities and because “the campus had all of things I was looking for.” Such as the fact that it’s a large(ish) school that feels like a small school where she sees familiar faces all over campus and professors are approachable, accessible, and make time for students outside of class.

She’s spent the past several summers providing in-home care for a 90-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease – an internship that’s given her real world experiences to enhance her classroom learning. But it’s also inspired her to be the kind of nurse patients look forward to seeing, the kind of nurse that makes them feel comforted. We’d call that a pretty big idea.