Last fall, when Iola High School science teacher Dana Daugharthy selected Sagar Patel as his student of the week, he praised the senior for demonstrating “dedication and hard work at times when many other students would give up.”
He then observed this of Patel: “Additionally, [Sagar] is incredibly respectful and polite to all people” — which is, even today, the topmost quality that greets the person who first meets the soft-spoken student, one of this year’s eight valedictorians.
Patel’s obvious brilliance — in addition to his unbroken straight-A record, he was recently named a Kansas Honor Scholar — is offset by his easy-going mood and gentle demeanor, which will, if he achieves his career plan, arm this future doctor with an invaluable bedside manner.
In a town like Iola, where many local surnames possess a history as ancient as the town itself, there is a certain allure that attaches to the family who somehow finds this dot on the map from the shores of a distant continent.
“My parents were originally born in India,” explains Patel. “After they got married, they moved to Las Vegas and started as ice cream truck workers. My dad had seven brothers; all of them came to Las Vegas and all of them worked as ice cream truck workers. But after [my parents] had my older sister” — Preeya, another IHS alum, recently graduated from KU’s pharmacy school — “they moved to Clinton, Mo., and bought the Best Western.
“After Clinton, they wanted to find a new place for me and my sister to grow up. … And I think they picked Iola” — in 2006, when Patel was in the second grade — “because it was a small town, and it is a comfortable place.”
Patel’s family owns the America’s Best Value Inn, where for years the young Patel has pitched in, first in the laundry room, and now, occasionally, at the front desk.
As evidenced by these two academic high-flyers — first, Preeya; now, Sagar — the Patel family prizes a rigorous education.
But Sagar nurtures his diversions, too. “I love sports. Any type of sports. It’s been ever since I was in the third or fourth grade. Mainly the NBA,” says this landlocked Kansan who somehow found in the Los Angeles Lakers his favorite team. “But, honestly, I like almost every sport.”
If the stars align, says Patel, who will start at the University of Kansas this fall, “my dream is to be an athletic trainer for the Lakers. I mean, it’s probably not going to happen, realistically. But, you know — a dream, that’s all.”
