On Thursday, April 3, educators and collaborators celebrated the groundbreaking of the Herbert STEM Center, a $9 million project that is set to provide the students of Whitehaven High School a state-of-the-art STEM education facility by the spring of 2025.
The building is set to be two stories and 18,500 to 20,000 square feet. The plans include a few classrooms, but the focus of the facility is on lab space.
"By providing 21st century science labs, which are currently lacking at Whitehaven High School, area STEM students will gain project-based, hands-on education," Richard Myers, one of the project's leaders, said in a news release. "[This] will ensure they perform at the same level in their college classes as their peers from schools now providing those labs."
The project leaders consulted with the University of Memphis to ensure the labs meet the standards for Advanced Placement (AP) physics, chemistry, biology, and environmental science classes.
In addition to the AP-standard labs, the plans include robotics and computer labs. The project's architecture firm, designshop, calls the robotics lab a "STEMnasium." On its website, designshop describes the "STEMnasium" as "a collaborative and fun space where students can explore and test their ideas."
The group hopes these labs will close a difficult to overcome deficit that leaves Whitehaven students at a competitive disadvantage in STEM careers, Myers told MBJ by email.
Of the students at Whitehaven High School, more than 95% are Black and 50% are economically disadvantaged, according to the Tennessee Department of Education.
While 25% of U.S. workers have STEM jobs, only 18% of Black workers in the U.S. do, according to a 2023 report from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
The report also noted that STEM workers earn a median annual income that is more than $20,000 higher than non-STEM workers, revealing how closing racial disparities in STEM can contribute to closing the racial wage gap.
With the upgraded facilities, Myers sees a pathway for this project to generate wealth and prosperity for the Whitehaven community. This potential path for future Whitehaven students mirrors the path of the project's largest and eponymous donor, James Herbert.
The building will be named the Herbert STEM Center after Herbert, who donated $2.5 million to the project before he passed away last month. Myers said the project wouldn't have been possible without Herbert and his wife, Judi.
“I have had the honor and privilege of working with numerous brilliant scientists, engineers, and medical professionals who were responsible for amazing discoveries and advancements that have led to us all living longer, healthier, better lives,” Herbert said in the project's planning stages, according to the release. “Each of these brilliant people started somewhere; somewhere, they all gained the inspiration and motivation that drove them toward achieving their tremendous accomplishments. My family and I are contributing toward this STEM facility with the hope of helping the young men and women of the Whitehaven area gain a bit of that inspiration and motivation.”
Herbert graduated from Whitehaven High in 1958 and from the University of Tennessee in 1962, with a degree in animal husbandry.
In 1982, Herbert co-founded Neogen, a public biotech company focused on food and animal safety and based out of Lansing, Michigan. Neogen is worth over $3 billion and earns hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue every year.
Herbert has a history of philanthropy, donating sums to UT's College of Agriculture and a cancer center in Lansing. Both also bear his name.
A wide range of local and non-local, public and private organizations and individuals supplied the remaining $6.5 billion for the STEM Center, including the Assisi Foundation, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Tennessee Valley Authority, Nike, Pinnacle Bank, Shelby County Government, City of Memphis, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
