Morris Brown College held a ribbon cutting for the unveiling of an innovation lounge on April 26 honoring fellow Morris Brown Professor, Dr. Nasrolah Farokhi.
Officially titled “Dr. Nasrolah R. Farokhi Center for Teaching, Learning, & Innovation”, Morris Brown College adds history to its campus.
Farokhi has worked at Morris Brown College since 1981, starting as an Assistant Professor and currently holding the rank of Full Professor since 1986. Farokhi established the Drs. Nasrolah and Beth Farokhi Endowed Scholarship Fund in support of the student scholarship.
In 2023, Morris Brown College joined 30 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) nationwide in receiving a “Retool Your School” grant from The Home Depot for campus improvement projects.
Chosen by students, alumni, and supporters, the college secured up to $75,000 in grants for the construction of an innovation lounge to serve as a space for students to connect and learn.
During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Morris Brown debuted its innovation lounge as a campus destination where students can brainstorm career paths, work together on academic assignments, and host hybrid meetings and webinars.
The space will serve as a hub for creativity, collaboration, and innovative thinking.
Morris Brown student leader and Junior Valencia Gardner said the innovation lounge is a “huge blessing” and means a lot to the school.
“This lounge is very important to Morris Brown,” she said. “Morris Brown has been through a lot of hardships in the last 20 years and with this space being available for students, it’s a blessing. Everything is in this one building including our classes.”
Gardner also said the lounge is a way for students to detox, relax, and separate from everything else going on in their lives.
“I might have times where I need to detox and just relax,” she said.
Tina Taylor, community engagement for Home Depot, said Retool Your School has been a program donating money and resources to HBCUs for over 15 years.
“We really get behind in the importance of supporting these institutions by providing infrastructure and creating spaces like the innovation lounge that are meaningful to students,” she said. “We wanted to create this space for them to be change makers.”
The importance and significance of the lounge, Taylor said, is students may not have time to get to the library or other spaces to study and unwind.
Earlier this month, The Home Depot hosted an awards ceremony to celebrate the 40 HBCUs that received Retool Your School grants from the 2024 program. During the event, Morris Brown College was awarded $100,000 in grants to fund new needs-based campus improvements.
Over the past 15 years, The Home Depot’s Retool Your School program has supported campus renovations that uplift HBCU students across the nation, impacting 82 campuses and accounting for more than 72% of the nation’s HBCUs. This year, The Home Depot surpassed $12 million in financial support since the program began in 2009.
For more information about the Home Depot’s Retool Your School program, visit https://corporate.homedepot.com/news/diversity-equity-inclusion/home-depot-kicks-15th-year-campus-enhancements-historically-black.