The fellowship gave the Elon nursing student practical experience in her field of interest, just in time for graduation in spring 2026.
Maiah Giampietro ’26 is Elon University’s first Flynn Oncology Fellow, a program provided by the Flynn Foundation, described as the largest privately-funded program of its kind for growing and preparing oncology nurses.
Giampietro worked as a Flynn Oncology Fellow in summer 2025 at HopeHealth Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.
“It was really such an amazing fellowship,” Giampietro said. “Doing all of the clinical work and actually talking and working (with) patients was great over the summer, and I’m still actively involved today.”
As Giampietro approaches graduation, pediatric oncology remains an area of interest for her after participating in the Flynn Fellowship. Following the fellowship graduation ceremony, she attended the National Conference for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Nurses in Providence to learn from distinguished leaders in the field.
“I was able to fly home, attend this conference, and meet so many amazing nurses. Even though the actual internship itself was over, I’m still getting so many great opportunities in the field,” she said
Fred Flynn, founder of the Flynn Foundation, began the program after the passing of his wife, Susan, in 2013 from stage four ovarian cancer. Witnessing the compassion of the oncology nurses who cared for her, he became inspired to influence true change in the treatment of cancer patients.
“The nursing workforce is aging, and nursing students in most universities get little to no oncology clinical or academic exposure to oncology, because it’s perceived as a specialty,” said Flynn. “This fellowship program I created addresses an important training and learning gap for aspiring nurses and helps address the critical need for well-prepared nurses in the field of oncology.”
The fellowship is offered by 14 different hospitals across Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Though hospitals make the final selection for applicants, Flynn stresses the importance of specific characteristics for Flynn Fellows.
“We look for students who are accomplished academically and engaged with their school,” Flynn explained. “They should convey the value of compassion. We look for students who are highly motivated, and Maiah is a very good example of this. She was very passionate about getting exposure to the specialty field of palliative care, and this really impressed us.”
Giampietro’s coursework and experiences in Elon’s School of Nursing played a significant part in inspiring her to apply for this fellowship. The close-knit relationships with professors in the department instilled in her the confidence to take initiative to search for new opportunities in the field.
“That’s something they really stress in Elon nursing; taking initiative,” she explained. “And the emphasis they place on building professor relationships really helped me because I knew I had people in my corner who knew me and were able to vouch for me, so that was a really big thing.”