Humans of Kellogg: Radhika Jajoo 2Y ‘26: Raised by a Village of Women

By: Tejas Niphadkar, Staff Writer

Radhika Jajoo 2Y '26. Credit: Gautaum Chebrolu (VP of Photography)

"At my Nani's funeral, there was an insanely long line of people who just wanted to tell us the ways she'd helped them," Radhika Jajoo (2Y ‘26) recalls, her voice carrying both grief and pride. Her maternal grandmother married at age 14, raised 12 younger siblings, finished her education by commuting to college with a ghunghat (i.e. a head covering and face veil, found in some parts of India) as per cultural norms, and built a charitable empire—all while being the foundation that enabled her husband's business success.

"She's the reason my grandfather could finish his CA [Chartered Accountant certification] and start his business. She was the wind beneath his wings."

Growing up in a joint family of eight in Indore, India, Radhika was surrounded by formidable women from the start. Her Nani, her mother who became a doctor "because she wanted to serve people," her paternal grandmother who raised five children while managing everything, her aunt and cousin sister who helped raise her. 

When the family moved to Delhi for her father's job, ten-year-old Radhika stepped into her own strength early, taking care of her younger sister after school while both parents worked. "I grew up as a half-parental figure to my sister. I grew up very quickly," she said.

But it wasn't until college at Delhi University that Radhika truly understood what this village of women had given her. "I met amazing, amazing women who taught me so much about being a woman and what it should be like," she says of her college friends. "I saw women being people I would want to be—having qualities I'd only originally seen in the men in my life."

These friends showed her something revolutionary: women could be "super strong leaders, aggressive in an empathetic way" without compromising their power. "They were ambitious and empathetic at the same time. They knew what they wanted and went after it, but they also wanted to make this world a better place."

Radhika (left) with her mother and Nani

The theoretical became personal during a research project on sanitary napkin taxation. Visiting a slum just a two-minute walk from her house to interview women, Radhika discovered many didn't even use sanitary products. They simply made do with leaves or cloth. "It made me realize there are two worlds, and I had no idea," she says. "Once I saw that, I couldn't unsee it."

This revelation, combined with her upbringing among strong women, crystallized her mission. "I saw how patriarchal my country is growing up. In my house, it was different because my mom earned. In most other houses, women weren't earning members. I could see what financial independence meant."

Working at Arthan, a consulting firm for nonprofits, Radhika interviewed 50 female leaders about their journeys, documenting barriers they faced from birth to senior leadership. At Pratham, one of India's largest education nonprofits, she spent three years in communities, helping women achieve financial independence through skills training and job placement. But she noticed a troubling pattern: "Even the best nonprofits face a power imbalance. Where the money is, the power is.”

This realization brought her to Kellogg with laser-sharp focus on impact investing. "I want to learn where money comes from and make decisions about where it should go," she explains. Her goal is gender-lens investing, channeling capital toward ventures that empower women economically.

The statistics fuel her urgency: women receive only 2% of venture capital funding; medicines are tested primarily on men; climate change disproportionately impacts women through displacement and violence. These aren't just numbers—they represent millions of women like those she's worked with in Delhi's slums.

"Impact investing lets me decide who gets money, what programs to fund, [and] what solutions to support," she says. "I want to invest in women founders, in funds that care about women's health, in products actually designed for women. It's about using capital as a tool for change."

Her mother and Nani "work from their heart. They just want to make this world better." Her college friends showed her that "when your values are aligned with the people in your life, it becomes easier to see a reflection of yourself in them." The women in Delhi's slums demonstrated resilience despite having "no financial literacy and no agency over their lives."

Each woman in this impressive village raised Radhika differently. Her Nani fighting for education in the 1940s, her mother breaking barriers in medicine, her friends reshaping modern Indian womanhood, the women in slums showing her what needed to change.

"I hope I can be half of what they are," Radhika says quietly.

Looking toward graduation, she's clear-eyed about her mission. "Five years from now, I don't want to regret that I could have done more. The common theme across everything I've done is wanting work where I can use both my heart and mind. Impact investing lets me use financial models and metrics, but ensure that work creates a world where all women have agency over their own lives." She pauses, then adds with quiet determination: "That's what my Nani would have wanted." Read More Humans of Kellogg Profiles: Keanan Crasto (2Y '27): The JV Who is Basically Doing Kellogg Twice Paige Kotecki (E&W - Kroger) and Ryan Kitchel (E&W - PepsiCo) Isabelle Hofgaertner (2Y '26), Former Nike Intern A JV Who's A Boothie! Chevy Chen (Kellogg E&W), United Airlines John Gilmore (JV)