Giving back to Seed Golden Opportunities for Students in STEM

Dr. Anila Jain

By Sylvia Whitman | Photo by Nancy Guth

Dr. Anila Jain’s undergraduate education at the University of South Florida in Tampa kindled a “green and gold passion” that has burned for four decades. Although she has made what she calls “token” contributions to her two other alma maters—Spartan Health Sciences University, where she studied medicine, and NOVA Southeastern University, where she earned an executive MBA—she has poured her time, treasure, and transformative thinking into USF, and into her neighborhood campus, USF Sarasota-Manatee. So, with a recent draft of her will, she announced a seven-figure gift to ramp up STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education at USFSM. 

“It’s an estate gift, so I hope it will be many, many years before it’s actually realized,” says Dr. Karen Holbrook, USFSM regional chancellor. “We need her leadership now.”

This month, internist and medical consultant Jain begins chairing a new Women in STEM committee. The group will be thinking through the plan underway to build a 75,000 square-foot, $45 million Integrated Science and Technology Complex (ISTC)—a “wow space” that captures USFSM’s high aspirations. Even before construction starts, Dr. Jain says, this initiative by leading local women in STEM will spawn lectures, seminars, scholarships, internships, mentoring, and “a wealth of knowledge.”

 “I wouldn’t call it a fundraising committee, but more an advocacy group,” adds Dr. Holbrook. “If you look at the data, women in STEM are underrepresented. Many start but then drop out early. Or when they get into these fields, they find themselves marginalized. The first step is to attract girls, starting in grade school, middle school, and high school, and get them to see the advantage of these programs.”

Eager mentor and scholarship donor, Dr. Jain, 59, has worked with many students who lack role models and a support system—so different from her own experience as the only child of education-minded parents. She was five when a Fulbright scholarship for her mother, Mona, brought the family from India to Sarasota. Mona taught science at Riverview High School. The Jains put down roots in Manatee County, and Mona went on to teach in Manatee public schools and earn assorted degrees, including an MD from Spartan Health University and a PhD in educational leadership from USF. In fall 2019, the new Dr. Mona Jain Middle School will open in Manatee County. 

In the summers, the family returned to India. Anila’s paternal grandfather served as a physician to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s family. Anila sat in her grandffather’s chair, looped his stethoscope around her neck, and opened a clinic for her cousins. “I always knew I wanted to be a doctor,” she says with a laugh.

Dr. Jain’s father, Kailash, in the fine-jewelry business, encouraged his wife’s and daughter’s ambitions. “There are more female physicians in India than many people think,” she says. “Education is a priority.” For instance, parents do not expect students to hold down jobs while in school.

Back in the States, Dr. Jain attended public school, a rare student of Indian heritage in Manatee County at that time. But her parents, in an interfaith marriage of Sikh and Jain, again modeled the positive and inclusive attitude that Dr. Jain projects. She appreciates this region’s diversity. “I always look at a person to see if they have a good heart,” she says.

She found many classmates of good heart at USF, where she majored in biology. She also served as a student ambassador and joined Kappa Delta, a sorority in which she remains active, once chairing its national foundation.

After medical school, Dr. Jain returned to the Suncoast to practice. She has volunteered and assumed leadership positions in a host of community organizations, ranging from the Manatee County Library Foundation to the League of Women Voters to the India Association of Manatee-Sarasota. She’s also participated to medical missions in India, the Caribbean, and impoverished areas of the United States. She recalls that her physician grandfather repeatedly reminded her, “After you start earning, don’t forget about giving back to humanity.” 

With no kids of her own, Dr. Jain has championed the health and well-being of abused and neglected children in this area. “I just can’t imagine any child not having supportive parents,” she says.

But her most gratifying moments, she says, have come from the young women she’s mentored, many of whom keep in touch. Some have entered allied health fields (“not everyone is meant to go to a four-year university”); others have made it through medical school or earned doctorates. Often, they’re the first in their family to graduate from college. They thank Dr. Jain for believing in them. 

“Education will always lead you to the next level,” she says.

Involvement with USF and USFSM has allowed ardent alum Dr. Jain to scale up her impact. A founding member and chair of USF Women in Leadership and Philanthropy, she has served on the Bulls Club Board of Directors for Athletics, the USF Foundation Board of Trustees, and umpteen committees. She has endowed sports, alumni, and women’s health initiatives scholarships. Although she refers to herself as a mere volunteer, she nonetheless speaks with an insider’s authority about articulation agreements “we” have forged regionally with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and Stetson College of Law. Or the residence halls that need to be built so “we” can attract students looking for a residential college experience. With the ISTC in the works, “we could double the number of freshmen in STEM,” she says.

“Our greatest need and purpose is student success,” says Regional Chancellor Holbrook. “Dr. Jain knows very well the importance of this building to our university and to the community.” The ISTC “will be a catalyst for this region in workforce development, bringing science and technology together. Companies will see training in place.”

So, ever bullish, Dr. Jain has put her money where her heart is. Announcing her hefty estate gift will, she hopes, “spearhead a whole campaign of giving.”

For More Information about University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, please visit usfsm.edu or call 941.359.4200.