Dr. Dre has donated $10 million to Compton High School to help break ground on a $200-million campus. In response, the school is naming its new performing arts center the “Andre ‘Dr. Dre’ Young Performing Arts Center.”
“I was an artistic kid in school with no outlet for it,” he said at Saturday’s groundbreaking ceremony. “I knew I had something special to offer to the world, but with nothing to support my gift, schools left me feeling unseen.”
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The new campus will include an academic building that can serve up to 1,800 students, a new gym, an aquatics center, a football stadium, and a track.
Dre attended Centennial High as well as Fremont High, but eventually dropped out. During his speech, he reflected on how things would’ve been different for him had he had access to better resources.
“I’ve always wondered how much further ahead I might have been had the resources I needed in school were available,” he said at the ceremony. “If I had learned more about the business industry, I would have saved myself [an] extreme amount of time, money and most importantly, [made] a lot of friendships.”
The new campus is expected to open in 2025.
In addition to donating to the high school, Dre also recently partnered with Jimmy Iovine to open a magnet public school in South L.A. and also donate $70 million to USC to create a new academy.
“This city is special, and young people living in it are special,” Dre said on Saturday.
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