Mission and Values

The USC Iovine and Young Academy is proud of our efforts to foster an accessible, inclusive, diverse, and equitable learning community. As a school, it is our express purpose to reinvent undergraduate and graduate education, specifically to meet the changing needs of our students and, through their abilities, society. Through these new models for education, we are intent on providing greater access for students from diverse backgrounds, and especially those who exhibit talents, traits and attributes different from those traditionally sought by higher education programs. With a commitment to cultivating global drivers of change, the Academy is preparing students with qualities encompassing the ability to collaborate with and engage in diverse teams; think critically across a broad spectrum of issues; encourage emotional and cultural intelligence and competence; act with kindness and humility; and effectively communicate to diverse populations as they prepare to become the leaders of tomorrow. 

We are committed to a transformative faculty body whose work as educators, scholars, technologists, entrepreneurs, artists and designers transcends disciplinary silos and ignites innovation across our campus. We support our faculty by facilitating research and course development practices that provide greater insights on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and access, as well as social and environmental impact. Further, we encourage our faculty, staff and students toward greater and more significant interaction with university wide educational resources such as the USC Rossier Center on Race and Equity, the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching, and the USC Center for Diversity and Democracy. 

The USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy was founded in 2013 with a visionary gift from entrepreneurs Jimmy Iovine and Andre “Dr. Dre” Young, to establish a new school to nurture critical thinking and unbridled creativity at the intersection of four essential areas: arts and design; engineering and computer science; business and venture management; and communication. 

Under the leadership of its founding executive director and dean, Erica Muhl, the Academy enrolled its inaugural class of freshmen, Cohort 1, in fall 2014. In July, 2018, the Academy was named USC’s newest professional school – only the 20th to be so named in the university’s nearly one hundred and forty years. 

The Academy’s first degree program, the Bachelor of Science in Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation, heralded a new age in higher education, and attracted top high school students from across the U.S. and abroad. In 2017, the Academy launched its first graduate degree, the online Master of Science in Integrated Design, Business and Technology, followed in 2020 by the landmark Master of Science in Product Innovation, which redefines product design for the 21st century. 

The Academy’s first home was the iconic “Garage” incubator, located on the 4th floor of Steven and Katherine Sample Hall at USC. The Garage set a new tone for learning spaces at USC and in higher education in general, opting for an open-concept, tech-enabled environment that encouraged and facilitated collaboration, and team- and project-based work. From 2014 to 2020, the students’ and faculty’s use of the Garage laid the conceptual and technological foundations for the Academy’s current home, Iovine and Young Hall.   

Belying its collegiate gothic exterior, IYH has taken learning environments into uncharted territory. Immediately upon entering, visitors experience an inspiring, design-rich environment in which every studio, laboratory, workshop and classroom can serve as a creative ‘partner’ for creation, ideation, invention and innovation.