NSU Horizons Fall 2017

11 NSU HORIZONS PHILANTHROPIC HIGHLIGHTS Founded the Drs. Kiran and Pallavi Patel Foundation for Global Understanding, a Tampa-based, nonprofit that highlights programs and funding for health, education, and the arts Donated $18.5 million to fund a global solutions center at the University of South Florida (USF), the largest donation in the history of Florida’s public universities Established the USF/Dr. Kiran C. Patel Charter School, the Dr. Pallavi Patel Pediatric Care Center, and the Dr. Pallavi Patel Performing Arts Conservatory Established Tampa’s India Cultural Center medical specializations at Columbia University in New York. In 1982 they moved to Tampa, where Dr. K’s brother lived, and established successful medical practices. There were only about a dozen Indian families in the community then. “We’ve lost count now, but in the early days, we were the first Drs. Patels to come to Tampa,” he said. The couple is constructing a 32,000-square-foot home on 17 acres on White Trout Lake in Carrollwood, a commu- nity about 10 miles from Tampa. Built in the Mughal style, it blends Persian, Islamic, and Indian architecture (think Taj Mahal). The compound includes a main house with connecting wings and two separate, smaller homes for their children and grandchildren. The couple’s two daugh- ters, Sonali and Sheetal, are physicians. Their son, Shilen, is a businessman. Dr. P recalls how Shilen, then 7, came home from school one day after his friends learned that his father drove a Lamborghini. “Shilen comes home and he says, ‘Dad, are we rich?’ And, Kiran looked at him, and he said, ‘Maybe I am rich, but you are not.’ This is how we raised our children [to believe] that you have to make your future, and educa- tion is the key to success,” she said. The Patels were raised much the same way. Dr. K’s father, Chhotubhai Patel, came from a small, rural village called Mota Fofalia in Gujarat on the coast of west India. As a young man, he moved to Africa. “His dream was to make education available at a young age,” Dr. K said. “In his village, he had to travel several kilometers just to get a basic education.” Dr. K and his two brothers made their father’s dream a reality. They built the C.A. Patel Mota Fofolia Hospital in Gujarat. Later, they built a K–12 school named the C.A. Patel Learning Institute. “Many people measure help in dollars and cents,” Dr. K said. “But it can be a simple act of assisting someone across the street, or smiling at someone in the morning, or any- thing good that you can do. That is what my father used to do. And, that mark is what I feel.” n