India, Aug. 23 -- At a time when immigration, belonging and who gets to claim America as home have become increasingly contested questions in American political discourse, the Sharma endowment to George Mason University offers a very different immigrant narrative, that of investing in the country they now regard as their own.

The first generation of Indian immigrants came to America to build careers, businesses and economic security. The next stage is what they do with that success. Increasingly, those who have achieved it are becoming institutional builders, putting their wealth into American universities, research, entrepreneurship and the next generation of American workers. The case of techie and entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist An...