The district is unveiling details this week about its Academies of Innovation and Technology to all freshmen and sophomores at Dixie Heights, Scott and Simon Kenton high schools.

The academies are three-year programs specifically tailored to certain careers. Students will be able to spend half of each school day in them when they open in August.

The academies will be: Biomedical Sciences, Sustainable Energy Technology Engineering, High Performance Production Technology, Engineering, Media Arts and Informatics.

There are several career focuses in each academy, such as a physician, civil engineer or videographer.

“With these academies, we’re making sure that when a student goes to college, they’ve already got some college credits and are on a career path,” said Superintendent Terri Cox-Cruey.

The district has been working for six months setting up the academies by gathering input from leaders of local businesses, colleges and universities, along with high school upperclassmen.

“There are a lot of jobs out there that people are not aware of because we have not developed those skills for people to fill those positions,” Cox-Cruey said.

The academies will be housed in four locations: one at each of the high schools and three at the J.D. Patton Career and Technical Center in Edgewood. That means students from one high school could be attending an academy at another high school. The district will provide daily transportation.

In 2007 the district launched its “schools of study” within each high school, in which students could take courses relevant to a career that may interest them. The six new academies go much deeper and are a more personalized path. For example, someone who wants to be a nurse would take math classes geared toward nursing in the Biomedical Sciences Academy, and could spend his or her entire senior year taking college-level nursing classes and/or job shadowing.

Students have to apply to get in. Cox-Cruey said who gets accepted, which will decided by a committee, will not be determined by grades or test scores, but more by each student’s desire to truly pursue a certain career.

“We’re looking for the passion,” she said. “We can improve the grade point average once we get them into something they’re interested in.”

After hearing Cox-Cruey talk Wednesday about the academies, Dixie Heights freshman Kristin Schimmelman said she would be looking into them.

“I don’t know if I’ll do it, but I think it’s a good idea to offer it,” Kristin said.

Freshman James Conti said the Engineering Academy will give him a jump on preparing for his career.

“I think it’s a great idea because I really want to go into engineering, and this will give me an opportunity to do that now,” he said.