(Image source from: www.americanbazaaronline.com)

A new state-of-the-art charter school financed by Indian-American philanthropist and entrepreneur Dr. Kiran Patel in northern Tampa suburb will render free quality education to students from the area and beyond.

The construction of Dr. Kiran C. Patel High School will be concluded in the summer of 2019 and classes will begin in August. Ground for the more than 60,000-square-foot school, which will comprise an 11,000-square-foot gymnasium, was broken on December 13.

The $20 million high school building, located on a 32-acre plot near the University of South Florida, will be funded to the full by the Tampa-based philanthropist.

The beginning in the waning days of the year marks the end of a hectic 15-month time period for Patel and his wife, Dr. Pallavi Patel, during which they bound up close to a quarter-billion-dollar for various philanthropic causes and made their second billion-dollar-plus exit from the health insurance business in a decade and a half.

In September 2017, the Patels had committed a whopping $200 million - the single largest donation by an Indian American to date - to Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in Fort Lauderdale. The gift, the largest in the university’s history, will impact healthcare delivery in the United States, India and globally.

Like the NSU donation, the latest philanthropic commitment also focuses on an area that is close to the Zambia-born Patel’s heart, education. In fact, a vast majority of Drs. Kiran & Pallavi Patel Family Foundations' works globally - including in the United States, India, Africa, and the Caribbean - have been in healthcare and education.

"The best gift that anyone can get is education," Patel told The American Bazaar in an interview at his home, on the banks of Lake Carrollwood in a northern Tampa suburb, after the groundbreaking ceremony. "Whether you will consider health as a primary requirement, or education, they go hand in hand. That is where the Nova investment was great - because we were able to train doctors and paramedical who are going to touch the world in a different way."

The philanthropist said his latest investment is driven by the fact that high school education, occurring in a child's formative years, is crucial and vital. "If you can produce a child out of high school prepared to face the world, you have given him the best position to go to great universities, colleges, etc.," he said. "So the idea of getting involved in a charter school was very simple."

A charter school is an independently run school similar to a private school, but one that does not charge fees from students. "Our kids have lots of options but unfortunately kids with no means have one choice and that is a public school system," he said. "Whether that is good, bad or indifferent, it doesn't matter. If you have a great student that is stuck in a public system, his potential will not reach the highest. Now, there are exceptions to everything. There are kids who will flourish no matter where they are. But to create an environment, where an average student now accelerates to a place where he can have these types of opportunities open to him, is what we are trying to achieve."

The Kiran C. Patel High School will be "like a private school, except that it is a tuition-free public school," said Indian-American Ash Bagdy, who came up with the idea of the school, along with his wife Kavita Jain. "You have a nice environment. It is well run. We have some independence to run it. We work under the Hillsborough County high school board requirements."

Kasti, a healthcare industry professional and author, said the school's focus will be on creating those types of students that will be future leaders.

-Sowmya Sangam