Any school team can request SolidWorks for their team here
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?s...sEYt6D7g_3d_3d
You can then Download HSMXpress here
www.hsmxpress.com to toolpath the part.
There are some great youtube videos to show you how to use HSMXpress here
http://www.youtube.com/user/NexGenCAM/featured
As far as importing an ai. An Ai is a vector image most software that produces and AI will also produce a DXF.
To covert the file from a AI to a DXF you could open it Adobe or Corel Draw and save it as a Dxf. This DXF can then be imported by either SolidWorks or inventor.
Hope this helps