Welcome to the new age of career-oriented high school education, created by the National Academy Foundation, a privately funded venture. The effort is designed to give students exposure to and experience in a career field, preparing them for college or work.

Since 1982, academies have provided high-schoolers across the U.S. with focused curricula in areas such as finance, IT and health sciences. Now, NAF's newest program—the Academy of Engineering, or AOE—has just graduated its first class, a total of nearly 500 students in 12 schools.