With an aging population and workforce and burnout since the pandemic, a nursing shortage is worsening across the country, but there's a new partnership in South Jersey with the goal of filling those open positions.

"My grandmother was a nurse and I grew up watching her help people so I want to be just like her," said Gabriela Yachi, a senior at LEAP Academy Charter School in Camden.

Yachi is determined to follow in her grandmother's footsteps. She's enrolled in a partnership between the LEAP Academy and Rutgers-Camden, which empowers high schoolers to pursue nursing degrees while earning college credits.

"I think it's a really great program because when I get in college, I will be in my sophomore year," Yachi said.

Seniors at the LEAP Academy take a full course load of college classes and graduate with at least 30 credits, but this is the first year the school introduced a nursing cohort as a nursing shortage worsens across the country.

"It allows you to see what you'll be going through before actually entering college and having one year of college taken down in high school is amazing and very beneficial," said Oluomachi Francis, a senior at LEAP.

The New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing projects New Jersey will be one of 10 states with the largest shortage of nurses by 2036.

"NJ will be in trouble if we don't begin to build that capacity for nurses," said Gloria Bonilla-Santiago, the founder of the LEAP Academy and a Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor at Rutgers.

Bonilla-Santiago says students will work in labs and with simulators to learn the importance of a career in healthcare.

"We are building a pipeline working with the LEAP Academy in getting students to come into an early college program that will be a feeder into those nursing spots," she said.

The students also have opportunities for a full scholarship to Rutgers-Camden through the Rutgers University Alfredo Santiago Endowed Scholarship (students must meet a GPA, attendance, and merit need requirement).

The program is an opportunity to fill vacant positions and help students achieve their dreams.

"I always wanted to help people, it's something I always wanted to do," said Christopher Torres, a senior at LEAP. "I see myself becoming a nurse and going further on in the medical field."