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It’s Tuesday, 9:30AM, at NYU Langone Health. Seventeen-year-old Esienee Morales is reviewing nursing protocols in preadmission testing. Down the hall, her schoolmate Yadiel Antonio Santana shadows an anesthesiologist, learning what happens in those crucial moments before surgery that most patients don’t remember.

Their work sits at the intersection of two realities: high school students often lack a ladder into viable careers, and a national nursing shortage threatens future patient care.

For Esienee, healthcare became personal when complications during her little brother’s birth sparked her interest in pediatric nursing. “It got me interested in becoming a pediatric nurse, but I really had no information about how to become one,” she said.

For Yadiel, his own complicated appendix surgery opened his eyes to anesthesiology. “Since it was a risky case, mine was more complicated,” he explained. “It made me more interested in healthcare, and I always wanted to help others.”

Neither teen has healthcare workers in their families. Returning home each evening, they regale their parents with fun facts about IV protocols and tales of patient advocacy.

Althea Mighten, EdD, DNP, APRN, senior director of nursing for innovation and inquiry at NYU Langone’s Center for Innovations in the Advancement of Care, sees the broader challenge.

“There will be a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience lost in nursing in the next 5, 10 years,” she said. “We are creating a soft landing with these programs in terms of knowledge transfer and even interest in the art and science of nursing.”

NYU Langone saw an opportunity to solve two problems with one approach. It could help underserved high school students chart a meaningful career path while also building tomorrow’s healthcare workforce.

The institution’s strategy includes several programs, each serving a function in workforce development and geographic area.

Both Esienee and Yadiel are part of NYU Langone’s Cristo Rey New York partnership, which places students in yearlong work–study positions throughout the health system. Students split their week between classroom and hospital. Four days of education, one day immersed in healthcare. Students from Cristo Rey New York come from families that make, on average, $39,730 a year—below the city’s median. For Yadiel, this opens a pathway to becoming the first in his family to go to college. NYU is his top choice.

“We truly believe in the students in our programs,” Dr. Mighten said. “The goal is for them to connect with nurses, for us to coach and to mentor them. They see up close the variation in what nurses do, bedside and otherwise.”

Esienee and Yadiel’s experience has been comprehensive. At the Perlmutter Cancer Center, they assisted nurses, provided refreshments to patients, and offered companionship to those receiving chemotherapy. In preadmission testing, they learned appointment scheduling and care coordination. Their MCIT rotation taught them about cybersecurity and network repair. While working with integrative health, they compiled patient education packets for families.

When Yadiel met an anesthesiologist in pre-op, the conversation was candid. “He told me how hard it is to reach his level, but really nothing is easy, so we have to assume it will take hard work to achieve our goals,” he said. Treating Yadiel and Esienee as young people with huge potential in healthcare has elevated their view of themselves.

“I didn’t expect I’d be able to absorb so much, but I was able to build my skills one step at a time,” Esienee said.

Another NYU Langone pipeline, The NYU LI High School Summer Mentorship Program, provides structure designed around students’ lives. Jessica Kirk, RN, a nurse manager at NYU Langone’s Long Island campus, wanted to be a nurse in high school and talked herself out of it, feeling too nervous about drawing blood and medical emergencies. She became a music therapist instead, returning to nursing in her 30s.

“I think to myself, if I had a program like this, I wouldn’t have been so intimidated, and there are so many people who don’t imagine themselves in healthcare simply because no one has lit the way for them in a way that meets them where they are,” Kirk said.

The Long Island program runs from 10:00AM to 2:00PM. Students can work service jobs at 3:00PM to help support their families. They receive CPR, Narcan, and Stop the Bleed training. They participate in simulations in partnership with the NYU Long Island Grossman School of Medicine and Molloy College. The program also provides MetroCards, bag breakfasts, and free lunch certificates to support any student in need.

Students discover healthcare’s true breadth. “They meet with nursing, building services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, child life, etc.,” said LaShon Pitter, the NICU nurse manager who helped develop the program in Long Island.

The teenagers consistently express surprise at being taken seriously by healthcare professionals. “A lot of the kids would come in and sit in my office and just chitchat,” said Jean Zebrosky-Clifford, RN, who runs volunteer services for the Long Island program. “Two things that stand out: When they say, ‘Oh, can you believe that doctor spoke with me?’ They don’t feel that they deserve this program. And then the fact that they have an opportunity to make a patient smile. A few of them were so excited that a patient smiled at them.”

In Brooklyn, students in the HE³AT program identify nursing challenges and propose solutions. The program culminates in a presentation day in which students defend their ideas in front of staff and faculty. Across NYU Langone, similar partnerships have emerged. The Orthopedic Hospital Program works with the High School of Health Professions, teaching students interview skills and casting techniques. Each program adapts to different student interests while maintaining the same core mission of inspiring the next generation of healthcare providers.

Program leaders regularly conduct career weeks at high schools on Long Island and in Brooklyn. They explain career options that require one- or two-year programs. Some technical healthcare jobs offer starting salaries of $65,000 to $85,000. These are comparable to or exceed starting salaries for many graduates with a four-year degree.

“Many of these students would be first-generation college students,” said Kali Buehner, the HR leader who helps build these pipeline programs. “Nobody was having these conversations when we were in high school, in terms of how broad healthcare opportunities can be and how early students can begin to explore that and gain skills. Here we welcome those conversations.”

The mentorship component proves crucial. Each morning, Dr. Mighten meets with the Cristo Rey New York students to discuss their goals and check progress. These daily touchpoints teach professional behavior and send a message: “You belong here.”

“We discuss nursing as an art and a science,” Dr. Mighten said. “In the mornings when they come in, I meet with them. We discuss what happened in school this week, what some of the topics that we talked about were. We try to make some of those connections in the practice area.”

One Long Island student said that she “was struggling with motivation, didn’t even really want to get out of bed anymore” toward the end of her school year. Having this program to look forward to gave her a purpose. Another student started with zero interest in healthcare. She ended up declaring she wanted to become a nurse.

The ripple effects reach families and peers. “My mom was really happy, so was my dad, because they knew this is what I wanted to do and that they’ve told me that they’ve seen a lot of change in me since I joined the program,” Esienee said.

“My mom and my grandma are really proud of me,” said Yadiel, whose grandmother always wanted him to work in healthcare.

When they talk to classmates about the program, their excitement is infectious. “I recommend this program because I feel like you can really shape your future,” Esienee said.

The programs focus on underserved communities with impressive results. Ninety-nine percent of Cristo Rey New York graduates attend college, and 100 percent of the class of 2024 was accepted to four-year colleges. Several Long Island program graduates have returned as volunteers. One success story includes an alumnus who now works as a registered nurse at NYU Langone.

Some students leave these programs with hard skills such as CPR certification and Stop the Bleed training. Others learn about areas of healthcare they never knew existed, such as clinical lab tech or population health. All carry forward the understanding of what it means to care for people when they need it most.

Media Inquiries

Arielle Sklar
Phone: 646-960-2696
Arielle.Sklar@NYULangone.org