URL rewrite

I’ve been asked by a client to do something a bit weird, but keen to know how possible it is…

The client wants to add the word “student” to the URL for a specific category and all of its children.

so, turn this…
http://domain.com/category/subcategory/post

into this…
http://domain.com/student/category/subcategory/post

And be able to use, http://domain.com/student, as an entry point into the website, ideally with a mini homepage (doesn’t need to be anything more than a unique template).

? Thanks