Mariah Castillo, RN

July Alumni Spotlight

LEAP Academy Class of 2010

Mariah Castillo joined LEAP Academy in the fourth grade and continued until the time she graduated as a member of the National Honor Society in 2010. She excelled in a plethora of extracurricular activities while at LEAP, particularly in sports: basketball, field hockey, tennis, cheerleading, baseball/softball and dancing. LEAP did not yet offer girls’ softball when Mariah was a student, but this did not stop her from wanting to play. She conducted independent research to find that she had the right to try out for the boys’ baseball team, and ultimately went down in history as the first and only girl to ever play LEAP baseball. She later petitioned to have girls’ softball added to the variety of sports offered and became captain of the founding team.

Mariah has dreamed of serving in the military since she was in high school, and continues to consider this career path. In her senior year at LEAP, she weighed joining the military against going to college, and was encouraged by her advisors to keep her options open. After being accepted to every school to which she applied, Mariah landed on the decision to study nursing at Rutgers University – Camden. In her third year at Rutgers, she had the life-changing opportunity to study abroad and volunteer at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Upon passing the NCLEX and becoming a Registered Nurse, Mariah worked on the Intermediate Care Unit at Cooper University Hospital for a year and a half. However, the excitement of studying abroad sparked a love for travel that called her to travel nursing. Mariah has since taken assignments in Connecticut, Washington D.C., North Carolina, New Jersey and Hawaii in cardiac, oncology, and progressive care units. Mariah is currently on crisis assignment in Brick, New Jersey where she is working tirelessly to help combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.