Allen Zelno '16

Allen Zelno BSN, '16 MSN, CRNP, FNP-C, knew that his decision to pivot in his late twenties to a career in nursing was the correct one during a chance encounter in Walmart. Zelno, a native of the Scranton, PA area, enrolled in the second cohort of Holy Family University’s accelerated program, started his career as a med-surg nurse at St. Luke’s Hospital in Allentown, PA, before becoming a family nurse practitioner during the pandemic and moving on to a private family practice. 

“One time a lady stopped me in Walmart just to thank me for making such a positive impression with her father several weeks before he died,” Zelno said. “She said, ‘I just wanted you to know you connected with him, and he was grateful for that.’ I would have never known that if she hadn’t stopped me. It is so gratifying to hear that you, as the nurse, before anyone else, are who they remember.” 

The decision to pursue nursing and choosing to do so at Holy Family University has been Zelno’s personal aha moment. 

“Enrolling at Holy Family University was the best decision I have ever made,” he said. “Nursing has done so much for me. I will always praise the profession. Most of all, from Holy Family University, I embraced the servant mentality, that we are always in service to others. I don’t see my career as just a means to a paycheck. It really truly is a calling. It’s not just a job, it’s a mission.” 

Zelno, who hopes to return to his alma mater one day for a Ph.D., would offer this advice to someone like him who is questioning if nursing is the road to pursue.

“At Holy Family, you are not going to be a number,” he said. “You are going to get personalized, one-on-one relationships with all of your professors. Your four years will be a journey that you are not going to take alone. The professors will do whatever they possibly can to help you succeed. To get through a nursing program is extremely difficult. But if you do, you will be able to live as the best version of yourself.”