i3 Academy + Jefferson State leadership — (l-r), Dr. Martin Nalls, Dr. Tommy Bice, Keith A. Brown (Sharron Swain / Bham Now)

Today, during Jeff State’s homecoming celebration, the college announced that i3 Academy‘s new high school will be located on the college’s beautiful Jefferson Campus in northeast Birmingham, just west of Center Point and south of Pinson. They also broke ground on a new Workforce Education Center.

Transforming the landscape of workforce development + high school education

Carson Building, Jefferson State, i3 High School — The H.Y. Carson Building is where i3 High will be housed. (Sharron Swain / Bham Now)

Jefferson State is shaking up business-as-usual with both the Workforce Education Center and the first-of-its-kind partnership with i3 Academy:

“These new initiatives will transform the landscape of both workforce training and high school education in the Greater Birmingham Area. The Workforce Education Center will allow the college to expand training opportunities in a variety of in-demand skill trade areas for the community, and the new partnership with i3 Academy will introduce a new benchmark for education that provides exciting new pathways for high school students.”
Keith Brown, President, Jefferson State

The Workforce Education Center, which will be constructed next to the college’s lineworker pole farm, will allow the college to expand training offerings in a variety of in-demand skill trade areas for the community, including:

Lineworker training
HVAC technician training
Electrical training
Training for multi-trade crafts

The vision behind this new partnership

Dr. Martin Nalls of i3 Academy — Dr. Martin Nalls is the Head of School at i3 Academy. (Matthew Niblett / Bham Now)

Dr. Martin Nalls, Head of i3 Academy, explained the new tuition-free public charter school’s vision:

“Since the doors of i3 Academy Elementary opened in 2020, our dream has been to see our first class of fifth graders walk across the stage in their caps and gowns. Our partnership with Jefferson State goes beyond that dream by adding the benefits of dual enrollment courses and workforce preparation.

i3 Academy graduates will leave the Jeff State campus prepared to be agents of change who will solve the problems they see in their world. We want to thank Jefferson State President Keith Brown and his team for their innovative thinking and collaboration in making this possible.”

i3 stands for “imagine, investigate, innovate.” The elementary school, which opened in 2020, is located in Woodlawn, and the middle school is in East Lake. With the current plan, this year’s 8th graders will be the first to have the opportunity to graduate from the new i3 High School in 2027.

The school plans to add one grade a year, starting with 9th grade during the 2023-24 school year, until it’s a full 9th-12th grade high school.

What i3 Academy’s partnership with Jeff State means

Dr. Tommy Bice, Chair of i3 Academy's board of directors

The aim of the i3-Jeff State partnership is to create a kindergarten to college or career pipeline for i3 Academy students, who will have multiple avenues for entering into higher education or the workforce.

Here are some unique features of the partnership:

Students have the opportunity to qualify for dual enrollment courses on the Jefferson Campus of Jeff State, where their school will be located.
- College-level classes will build a solid foundation for associate or bachelor degrees.
- Students can graduate from high school with technical certificates, leading to lifelong, financially-stable careers.
This partnership will create a culture of achievement for the high school students and continue the charter model of offering high-quality educational choices and new opportunities to students and their families.

“Imagine an innovative, inner-city, public high school co-located on a college campus where students graduate with their high school diploma and an industry-recognized credential, and/or an associate’s degree, and/or enough dual enrollment credits to transfer into a four-year university as a second semester sophomore – welcome to i3 High at Jefferson State.

Thanks to the imagination and willingness to challenge the boundaries of tradition and bureaucracy, the leaders of these two institutions, Dr. Martin Nalls and President Keith Brown, a new model of opportunity has been created, affording students and their families a first-of-its-kind high school and college experience in Alabama.”
Dr. Tommy Bice, Board Chairman, i3 Academy

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