ATLANTA, GA – Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine’s Iovine and Young Education Group is partnering with Atlanta Public Schools to launch a new center.
Opening at the Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta in August 2024, the Iovine and Young Center will initially be offered to students in the school’s 9th Grade STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) Academy
Students enrolled in the program will get the opportunity to “explore diverse disciplines, businesses, and industries to bring solutions to the problems surrounding these areas.”
At the end, students will be able to collaborate and create pitches for their innovations that challenge real-world problems.
We want to give the next generation of students access to a proven, revolutionary learning experience where technology meets design and entrepreneurship,” Iovine said in a statement. “This will not only prepare them for the jobs of today but equip them to reimagine and shape the jobs, technologies, and creative enterprises of the future.”
He continued: “We are thrilled with our results in higher ed and the Los Angeles high school, and hope for similar success with Atlanta Public Schools.”
Each year, the cohort of freshman class will be expanded and given the opportunity to enroll. The program will be fully implemented in all four grade levels by the 2027-2028 school year.
The seasoned music executive and producer Dallas Austin visited Frederick Douglass High to make the announcement in person on Tuesday (August 29), according to Atlanta News First.
Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine have been focused on philanthropic efforts for some time. In 2014, the Beats co-founders launched the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation at the University of Southern California.
More recently, the pair opened a public high school in Los Angeles in 2022 named Regional High School #1, where more than 80 percent of the students come from low-income families and are Black and Latino.
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While announcing the school in 2021, Dr. Dre told the Los Angeles Times he wanted to help the “younger him.”
“Here’s a place that you can go where there’s something that you can learn that you’re really interested in,” Dre explained. “That guy that didn’t have an opportunity, that had to scratch and figure out things on his own.
That had the curiosity but didn’t have these type of opportunities, really smart kids — we want to touch and give them this open door and these opportunities to be able to show what they can do. This is something new and different that might excite the kids and make them want to go to school.”