Narpat Bhandari
NEW YORK: With an aim to molding future global citizens through holistic education, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Narpat Bhandari on September 2, launched the Global School of Silicon Valley in San Jose, California.
The school that is geared to offer 21st century education from Junior Kindergarten through 8th grade, is backed by the Singapore-based Global Indian Foundation (GIF), which currently operates 21 highly successful schools in seven countries.
For Bhandari and his wife Chandra, this venture is a realization of a dream. “My work on behalf of the Global School has brought my life full circle, enabling me to continue to create and innovate while also providing a catalyst for me to give back to the community that I have called home for more than 40 years,” says Bhandari. “All of us want to make life better for our children and grandchildren, and one of the ways I believe we can ensure this is to provide them with the best education available.”
Silicon Valley is the first operational campus in the US and serves as a sound model for future expansion nationally. The Foundation plans to have 100 campuses worldwide by 2020.
The setting up of the Global School in Silicon Valley is the result of the vision that Dr. L.M. Singhvi, Founder President of GIF shared with Bhandari to set up a school in the US that propagates the best tenets of global education.
For Bhandari, a scientist, entrepreneur and mentor with five decades of Silicon Valley experience, taking up this project was an extension of his social entrepreneurship. “Despite all my work in Silicon Valley, I felt there was still something missing and that I needed to do something for my grandchildren. And so, I associated myself with Dr. Singhvi and Atul Temurkar, the co-founder and Chairman of GIF.”
Bhandari considers basic high school education being offered in American schools was terrible and that children needed to be molded through a holistic approach to education.
The GIF endeavors to educate the next generation of enterprising and ethical leaders regardless of nationality, and inculcate a sense of social and cultural integration that is critical for them to grow as global citizens of the future.
The Global School program is based on a unique tailoring of the curriculum of the GIF network of international Global Schools to incorporate the California Standards and best practices of high performing independent schools in the US.
Besides the school’s extensive extra-curricular and academic program, its network of 21 campuses in eight countries affords students at the Silicon Valley campus and staff the unique opportunity to connect and share with peers internationally.
SRIREKHA CHAKRAVARTY
India Post News Service
