Inspired by the nurses who cared for her grandmother, Darciah Costa ’25 loved her time at URI and took full advantage of the opportunities she found here. Now, she’s launching her nursing career at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Darciah “Darcy” Costa ’25 was in high school when her grandmother, Margarida, was nearing the end of her life. She was in a nursing home after having lived for years with dementia.

Costa, who helped care for her grandmother throughout her illness, witnessed a simple but profound interaction between Margarida and her nurses that shaped the direction her future would take.

“My grandma loved, loved tea, and specifically Tetley black tea,” Costa says, noting that the nursing home where her grandmother lived was under COVID-19 restrictions at the time. “That’s not the tea they normally had at the facility, but the nurses always made sure to have that specific brand for her. Every time she drank some, you could see a little of her coming back. Not only did they approach her with patience and kindness, but they tried to bring more of her true self out, especially as the disease progressed,” Costa says. “So that really spoke to me and drove me to look into nursing.”

Nursing is a family legacy for Costa, whose mom, Margarida Costa ’14, is a cardiac care nurse and a URI nursing grad. Costa’s campus visit and the support she received from the University after being named a Ryan Scholar—which provides full scholarships for exceptional students—convinced Costa this was the place for her.

“It’s very community-based, which helps with making connections and friendships, networking, and finding mentors,” Costa says. “URI fosters that atmosphere.”

Costa has taken advantage of many opportunities at URI, excelling in the classroom and the lab, and gaining experience from the interdisciplinary clinical rotations that are part of the College of Nursing curriculum. She has also taken part in research projects with Professor Susan Desanto-Madeya, and earlier this year she presented at the Eastern Nursing Research Society’s annual conference, showcasing research she conducted with assistant professor of nursing Erica Liebermann about national HPV vaccination rates and the barriers to increasing those rates.

Costa received the College of Nursing’s 2025 Academic Excellence Award, an honor she attributes not only to her hard work and the college’s dedicated professors but also to her decision to step outside her comfort zone and become a campus tour guide.

“Tour guiding connected me with so many different people and made me more comfortable with myself and more confident in my speaking abilities,” Costa says. “I found the key to doing well academically is leaning on the support around you.”

Costa interned at Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Bradley Hospital, and Women & Infants Hospital, ultimately developing an interest in cardiac care nursing. This summer, she is starting her nursing career in the medical telemetry unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. In the future, she hopes to add labor and delivery nursing to her résumé.

“I definitely want to start as a bedside nurse, but I could see myself doing research and working abroad in global maternal health,” Costa says. “I’d like to research how cardiovascular health can contribute to pregnancy complications, especially in women already facing other disparities. I want my research to contribute directly to health policy to address these problems.”

To that end, Costa plans to pursue a Ph.D. in nursing, which, she says, could lead her back to URI.

“I found such a home and direction here,” Costa says. “URI is a place where they take you as you are, but they push the limits you might have on yourself for what you can be in the future.”

—Patrick Luce ’99

PHOTO: PATRICK LUCE