Brandon Carver's first day of his senior year at Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley started Wednesday with a plate of Applied Legal Studies and an added helping of Constitutional Law.

The 16-year-old at the Simi Valley Unified School District's award-winning magnet high school is participating in classes offered through the Law in Society Academy, a new program offering students a deep look into the country's legal system. Classes for the new school year started Wednesday throughout the district.

"The academy is great," said Carver, who participated in the school's Mock Trial Club last year. "I like being the vanguard to the movement."

Created out of student interest in the subjects, the new academy consists of a handful of classes dedicated to law.

Teacher Matt Long, the academy's champion who helped acquire a $200,000 state grant to fund its first three years, said students begin ninth grade taking an English course focused on speech and forensics.

In 10th grade, Logic and Ethics is added to the class list. For juniors and seniors, Constitutional Law serves as the required government class, and the economics requirement will be met through International Trade and Globalization. In a yet-to-begin class called Law & Order, seniors will be job shadowing and interning in legal careers.

In Applied Legal Studies, the 33 students will be required to participate in a mock trial. With the formation of the academy, the Mock Trial Club has become an official academic activity and is worth 50 percent of a student's grade in the class.

Even if a student doesn't want to go into the legal field, Long said, the classes are helpful to all who participate.

"They're going to learn to be advocates for themselves," he said. "They're going to learn how to write well, speak for themselves and feel comfortable or competent with public speaking.

"Because it has the career academy component, it's a litmus test," Long said. "I don't expect everybody taking the classes to go into law school. If some do pursue careers in this area, great. But if some students say this isn't for me, that also has value."

Since its formation in 1998, Santa Susana High has created 10 academies or programs focused on academics, technology and the performing arts.

Principal Pam Carter said the new academy will be different from the rest.

"We have three schools of study, and this is the first one with a career component," she said.

Long said he's been getting a lot of offers for help from the legal community, which will be an essential part of the academy's career component.

"I'm excited about it, because I already feel like there's a lot of buy-in from the students," he said. "It's really exciting to me as a teacher who normally teaches required classes that this is a class that's interest-based. The only people in it are people who want to take it."

Jake Finch's e-mail address is alljake@hotmail.com.