Patels giving $1 million to establish new fellowship

Fellowship aims to inspire creation of more socially conscious businesses

By California State University, Bakersfield

December 16^th, 2021

California State University, Bakersfield is receiving $1 million from the Ravi and Naina Patel Foundation to create and support a Mahatma Gandhi Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship. The gift will be distributed to the university over a five-year period, starting this year.

“The Gandhi Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship positions Cal State Bakersfield as leaders in an emerging new discipline in business,” said President Lynnette Zelezny. “Social entrepreneurship applies a value-based approach to business innovation to improve the quality of work and life regionally. Through research and program development, faculty and student teams will approach business development in a new way exploring issues like sustainability, building self-sufficient communities and creating workspaces that respect work-life balance. We are truly grateful to Drs. Ravi and Naina Patel for supporting this visionary fellowship.”

The Patels have long been supporters of CSUB. Dr. Ravi Patel, who founded the Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center in 1984, has served on the CSUB Foundation board of directors since 2019.

The Patel Foundation, which was established by the couple in 1998, has also given to the university in the past, such as to establish a scholarship fund to encourage nursing students to pursue a career in oncology.

The Patels hope the fellowship will encourage young entrepreneurs to operate environmentally and socially sustainable businesses.

“It’s very important that certain principles and ethnics be applied in business,” Dr. Ravi Patel said. “You need to be able to run a business efficiently and make a profit, but at the same time be focused on the greater good of society and mankind. This fellowship will provide a good roadmap for applying business in a way that brings about great changes that benefit society.”

The fellowship aims to merge business with the principles and beliefs of Gandhi regarding the ethical use of wealth to develop strategies for addressing issues in our region.

“You can make money while doing good for society. It doesn’t have to be one or the other,” said Dr. Naina Patel. “Both can be done together as one. That is what we are trying to show through this fellowship. It’s about creating compassionate entrepreneurship.”

The gift is one of several that have come in recently to support local business growth. The SeedCore and Skeet Varner foundations have each committed $500,000 toward the creation of a Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on campus.

Jim Burke Ford and CSUB alumnus Chris Hayden are also each donating $100,000 toward the development of the center.

The gift from the Ravi and Naina Patel Foundation will help fulfill two of the priorities that CSUB has established with its first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign, which was announced in October. It will support future leaders and foster academic excellence through the fellowship. The goal of the campaign is to raise $55 million by July 2024.

A 'win-win' for Kern County

The Gandhi Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship is expected to be in place by next fall and will be initially awarded to one CSUB faculty member along with a student assistant. The faculty member must work full time at the university and can be from any department within the School of Business and Public Administration (BPA).

As part of the two-year fellowship, the faculty member will develop material that can be used for Corporate Social Responsibility classes as well as 10- to 15-minute lessons that can be used in any of the core classes within BPA and across the campus. The goal is to create material that is targeted to the region and be delivered by an area expert.

The Fellow will also be expected to conduct applied research in areas of social entrepreneurship, business and social responsibility and the improvement of the work experience. The research should be presented at academic conferences and events, in academic journals and well as in local media.

“This fellowship is a win-win for students and the community,” Dr. Ravi Patel said. “We wanted to do something that would improve quality of life in Kern County and outside of it. It’s enriching for us to see that our community will benefit from this.”

BPA Interim Dean Dr. John Stark said the fellowship will complement the work the university is already doing in preparing the region’s future business leaders.

“The Patel gift allows us to go beyond simple economics to help build social consciousness into small businesses,” he said. “It also allows us to expand our current degree work in educating future business leaders on the importance of being good community citizens and by embracing the concepts that Gandhi used to free and transform India. Finally, it supports research on the values of leading change by example, of embracing sustainability, of frugality, and of simplicity, all in local contexts. Successful, socially conscious businesses can truly provide solutions to many of the challenges facing our region, and the Patel gift is a critical step in building these organizations.”

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

Runners on the Rise is the first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign at California State University, Bakersfield. The campaign is centrally focused on what is most important at CSUB: students. This ambitious effort aims to raise $55 million by July 2024, helping our students — and in turn the entire region — reach new heights of success. Join us on this upward trajectory atcsub.edu/rise.