• Hometown: Pawtucket, Rhode Island

Samantha chose URI because it was close to home, but she’s fallen in love with her professors, who she says are the program’s biggest strength. “All the nursing faculty are very helpful and kind, they always want what’s best for you, and they expect you to work hard. They’re pretty awesome,” she said.

She’s a bit of an explorer, and she saw a career in nursing as a terrific way to explore all sorts of fields – trauma, intensive care, community health, anesthesia, teaching and more. “With nursing, I can keep growing and learning as a healthcare provider, while in other majors you get stuck in a single field. I’ve always been the type of person who wants to help other people, and nursing will allow me to improve peoples lives emotionally, physically and mentally,” she said.

But while the versatility of nursing is a constant, Samantha does have some pretty clear big ideas for her career – she wants to work for a non-profit organization, serving low-income unindustrialized populations around the world.