Iovine and Young Academy built around interdisciplinary innovation

The Iovine and Young Academy at USC grew from Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre’s experience at Beats and Apple, where engineering, design and business teams often struggled to communicate across organizational silos. The school was designed to combine technology, design and entrepreneurship rather than treating interdisciplinary study as a single elective course.

Iovine said the academy received $70 million in initial funding, committed within a month, despite the founders having no background in education. He described empathy and understanding the purpose of other disciplines as essential to collaboration and innovation, particularly as technology and AI become more abstract.

The academy attracts many applicants because relatively few schools match its model, according to Iovine. Students may work at Apple or startups after graduation to gain experience; he argued that doing so does not prevent them from pursuing broader ambitions.