LeBron James has always made a point to give back to the community throughout his career. Now, he’s undertaking his biggest community project yet. Tuesday, it was announced that through a partnership between his foundation, the LeBron James Family Foundation, and Akron Public Schools, James is helping create a brand new public school in his hometown. 

“Probably about 20 minutes ago, when I was sitting in my home, I was just talking to my wife, and I was just like ‘I can’t believe I have my own school,’” LeBron said during a ceremony to announce the school, which will be called the I PROMISE School, and will open in the fall of 2018. 

During the announcement, LeBron said: 

“As a kid, myself, growing up in this city, I was very lucky. And the reason I say I was very lucky even though I was underprivileged, I was very lucky because I had some mentors, I had a mother, I had some friends, and we all had the same thing in mind. They just would not let me go off course. The other side of that is a lot of the kids I see today in this community and all over the world, are not lucky enough to have the same mentors, and have the same people around that can help their dreams become reality. For us to be able to do something like this, and bring this today to these kids, that gives these kids the infrastructure, and gives them the mentors, the leaders, and the people that are gonna be around them every day on a day to day basis that can make their dreams become reality, that’s what means more to me than anything.”

More about the school via the LeBron James Family Foundation’s YouTube video introducing it:

The LeBron James Family Foundation and Akron Public Schools have partnered to design a brand new school for the public school students in Akron who need it most. A culmination of years of on-the-ground work and research-based interventions through LeBron’s I PROMISE program, the proposed I PROMISE School will be more than a 1st - 8th grade academic institution. It will infuse APS’s rigorous curriculum with a STEM, hands-on, problem-based learning focus with LJFF’s ’We Are Family’ philosophy to create a complete wraparound for its students and their families.

This is an incredible achievement by LeBron, as he continues to go above and beyond in his commitment to make life better for the kids in his city. For as lucky as we are to have seen him play such tremendous basketball over the past decade-plus, the city of Akron, and the whole country, are equally lucky to have such an impressive leader and role model off the court.