Local Resident Serves as Founding Principal of Innovative Healthcare High School

By Katie McFadden

A first-of-its-kind public healthcare high school has opened up right in Queens—Northwell School of Health Sciences. And at the helm of this unique endeavor as founding principal is Belle Harbor resident, Erika Hurtado-Valentino.

As the 2025-2026 school year began, the first ever class of 240 students began at Northwell School of Health Sciences (NSHS) located at 53-16 Northern Boulevard in Woodside. And greeting her students with a smile in the brand-new school was Principal Hurtado-Valentino.

NSHS is made possible by a $250 million national initiative by Bloomberg Philanthropies to create healthcare-focused career technical education high schools in 10 communities around the country. New York City’s is the first, and making this school possible is a partnership with Northwell Health.

As founding principal, it’s a personal accomplishment and honor and a perfect fit for Hurtado-Valentino. NSHS’ principal has been a lifetime Queens resident, growing up in Richmond Hill and then Ozone Park, before moving to Rockaway in 2016. She’s worked in education for 21 years, starting as a math teacher at John Adams High School, but she felt called to do even more in a leadership role. “After being part of several teams, I felt like I really had a deeper calling for leadership, and I wanted to be more hands on. I was very fortunate to be surrounded by great leaders both in administration and teaching staff, that inspired me to take the leap,” she shared. That led Hurtado-Valentino to becoming assistant principal at the Franklin K. Lane Campus on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, and then she leapt even higher, becoming a principal for 12 years at Bronx Aerospace High School and then Food and Finance High School.

But Hurtado-Valentino didn’t always plan on teaching. A natural caretaker, growing up caring for her younger siblings, she had wanted to help people on a different level with dreams of becoming a doctor. But as the first in her family to even go to college, it was a path not traveled before. “I recognized that it would be a challenging path as the first in my family to go to college, so it was a trajectory that was a little bit difficult to navigate on my own and manage the course workload and have the study habits and discipline to be able to excel while also taking care of my siblings,” she said. But Hurtado-Valentino forged her own path that wound up bringing her full circle, to a place of seeing other young students pave the way for potential careers in healthcare.

“What I found at the core of the healthcare piece was that I was really passionate about healing and helping others and I really relied on my high school teachers to help me find my path and guide me and I wanted to pay that forward to my community, so I realized I could be a teacher and help young adults who are also trying to find their way,” Hurtado-Valentino said about going into the education field.

In her own advanced studies, Hurtado-Valentino, as a graduate of the Summer Principals Academy at Columbia University, was given a capstone project with a goal of designing her own school, so she had a pre-conceived notion of what that would look like. So, when Bloomberg Philanthropies, NYC Schools and Northwell Health teamed up to create a new healthcare-oriented high school in Queens, Hurtado-Valentino jumped at the opportunity to bring her experience and passion to the table. “When that partnership happened and when the vision was coming to life, they said, OK, well now we need a leader at the table and they collaborated to find the right person and I am just grateful to say that person was me,” she said.

As founding principal, Hurtado-Valentino oversees the current 240 students, which will grow to about 900 at full capacity over the next few years, in an opportunity for a unique high school experience, in which students can explore four pathways towards careers in healthcare, or to utilize those skills towards other career paths in the future. “We are a CTE school, which is career technical education, so our students will graduate having earned CTE credentials in either medical assisting, behavioral and mental health, pre-nursing and healthcare management. So, these four pathways are designed not just to give our students an opportunity to kickstart their career in healthcare, but they can always pursue other careers as well,” she said. Partnering with Northwell, students will have opportunities to be mentored by Northwell Health professionals, to work for Northwell Health to gain real experience and they can take advantage of tuition reimbursement for higher education.

While at NSHS, the students take regular high school courses, but also AP courses that will give them the advantage of having early college credits. And with such large investments in the school, these students are working with some of the most innovative technologies that are available when it comes to learning about healthcare. “For example, we have a lab of Anatomage Tables, which offers virtual dissections. It’s state-of-the-art technology where actual cadavers were scanned so that our students are able to really learn about the human body. We are the first school in New York City public schools that has been able to purchase a lab full of them and they’re spectacular,” Hurtado-Valentino said.

And Hurtado-Valentino is honored to lead the way at NSHS. “I am extremely proud to have been given this opportunity for many reasons. I represent someone who is the first generation in my family to be able to set a new standard and opportunities for my siblings and showing them what I have been able to accomplish as a Latina and a Queens resident. To be able to open this amazing institution right here in Queens, having started my career in Queens, makes it feel like a big homecoming where I’m able to serve my community,” she said. “It’s also exciting to be able to be a part of something that can be groundbreaking and can serve as a blueprint for other schools, not just in New York City but across the country.”

As founding principal, Hurtado-Valentino’s overall goals are simple. “Our goal is to have a school where children are happy, children are celebrated, children feel safe to take academic risks and students are succeeding and excelling at a school where our families are a part of the community,” she said. And students are eager to be a part of NSHS. Hurtado-Valentino said, “Last year, we had 2,001 applicants, which I believe is the greatest number of applicants for a new school in the last 20 years or so. There’s definitely a hunger for NSHS and people are excited.”

For more info about Northwell School for Health Sciences, check out: www.northwellschoolofhealthsciences.org