Music moguls Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine are building a student center for Atlanta public school students to explore their passions and achieve their goals.
“We believe we’re going to give these kids an advantage, a different type of education,” shared Iovine, the music executive, who founded Beats Electronics with Dr. Dre in 2006. “So, you all can sell these kids, go out there and say you want these kids. Because the modern job needs these kids. That’s why.”
Iovine said their reasoning for giving back is inspired by a grander mission: to change the way students see their
futures. “Me and Dre think big,” he said. “We think everybody in the world’s going to learn like this, well, maybe! We never thought everybody in the world would wear our headphones, but they did.”The Iovine and Young Center will provide real-life opportunities for students to challenge themselves and develop new skills. The center will also incorporate an interdisciplinary curriculum built to grow students’ professional and personal development.
This is not the entrepreneurs’ first effort to impact youths in their academic journeys. They created a magnet school in Los Angeles in hopes of innovating education.
Students at the Atlanta high school are excited for the new scope of opportunities. Sophomore Caleb Mitchell believes the center will spark the “potential” of students who just need a chance to showcase their skill-sets.
“We don’t have as much opportunities as other schools have,” senior Ariel Brumant
said. “Jobs and how people don’t look toward us because our careers or the school that we come from or the area that we come from or the things that go on.”The center and the program will open next year.
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