A pig’s lungs were inflated in front of a group of Atlanta ninth graders.

For Kylah, a student at the Academy for Innovation in Medicine (AIM), touching the lung and watching it expand was only the beginning. On that Wednesday, Sept. 23, students also learned how to intubate a mannequin, guiding a tube into an airway to help a patient breathe.

“We got to come up and touch … this pig lung,” Kylah said. “And then we also learned how to do intubation, like step by step, and intubate a mannequin.”

Experiences like these are central to AIM, a tuition-free public charter school that opened this summer 2 blocks from the Lindbergh Center MARTA station. In its first year of operation, the school serves sixth and ninth graders, combining academics with health sciences, career exploration and hands-on learning.

As AIM grows, the school plans to add seventh and 10th grades next year, followed by eighth and 11th grades and eventually, 12th grade as its first students advance.

For families looking ahead, AIM’s lottery for the 2027-28 school year opens Oct. 1 and closes Feb. 1.

The school is designed to give students multiple options after graduation. Through dual enrollment and Georgia’s Accelerated Career Diploma program, students can work toward an associate degree and industry credentials while earning their high school diploma.

AIM founder and CEO Dr. Kristy Beam said students begin building “stackable credentials” before progressing to certifications and college coursework.

“I think we do a disservice to kids by waiting until … 11th and 12th grade to start talking about careers,” Beam said. AIM, she added, is creating a pathway where students can graduate “truly workforce ready and advanced degree ready, so it’s not one or the other.”

That exploration begins early.

Every Wednesday, students and staff wear scrubs as part of the school’s clinical immersion programming. Through AIM’s collaboration with Grady Health System, students meet health care professionals and explore careers they may not have previously considered.

Lauren Wright, who works with AIM through Grady and serves on AIM’s board, said the goal is to let students experience health care rather than simply hear about it. Sixth-graders have coded robots while learning about blood flow, explored an ambulance with EMTs and practiced first-aid scenarios.

“Let them experience it,” Wright said, so students can “see what opportunities there are in healthcare outside of just being a doctor, a nurse, or a tech.”

Sixth grader Jackson said that exposure is already expanding his understanding of medicine. Interested in neurosurgery, Jackson  said AIM can connect students with professionals who explain what different careers require.

“AIM has offered me a ton of opportunities, healthcare career paths, and different ways I can… have a job in the future,” Jackson said.

For ninth grader Kylah, those experiences are also shaping her plans. She is interested in becoming an anesthesiologist and learning more about neurology. Hands-on activities make her feel “like an actual healthcare worker.”

Classmate A’dyn entered AIM interested in entrepreneurship, but his experience has sparked an interest in surgery and potentially combining business and health care.

AIM “gives us … more options to what we can do in life,” A’dyn said, helping students “expand our horizon[s] on the careers we want to achieve.”

Parents are watching that exploration unfold, too. Tynisa Collins, an AIM parent and volunteer said her family was drawn to the school’s health care focus and opportunities for students.

“Being an AIM parent is just seeing the scholars coming here every day, excited and ready to learn, and asking questions,” Collins said.

AIM’s launch has been supported by partners including Grady and RedefinED Atlanta, a local nonprofit that supports public schools and education initiatives across metro Atlanta.

Angira Sceusi, executive director of RedefinED Atlanta, said national philanthropic funding helped make AIM possible, but expanding workforce-focused schools will also require local investment.

“We are going to have to have… industry partners willing to put skin in the game,” Sceusi said. “Most of what we’re able to do, we’re able to do because we raise national dollars, but in reality, this is for Atlanta. We should be raising Atlanta dollars.”

AIM is only months into its first school year, meaning its larger outcomes,  graduates earning degrees and credentials, or moving into health care jobs,  are still years away.

For now, those ambitions can be seen on Wednesdays, when students put on their scrubs and step into roles they may one day hold professionally.

And sometimes, that future begins with a pair of inflated pig lungs.

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