RADHA JALAN

The Scholarship Fund of Concord and Carlisle Donor,
The Scholarship Fund of Concord and Carlisle Vinod Jalan Memorial Scholarship

In 1993, after my husband passed away suddenly of a heart attack, my daughters and I started the Vinod Jalan Memorial Scholarship in his name. As well as a husband and father, he had been a very accomplished doctor of chemical engineering with several patents, and he had founded the corporation ElectroChem, at which he was CEO. 

We moved to Concord in 1979. My two daughters went to school in Concord and graduated from CCHS in 1990 and 1994, respectively. In addition to establishing this scholarship as a remembrance of my husband, we created it because we wanted very much to give back to the community of which we have been a part. We have stated our preference that the scholarship be given to a female student from a minority group seeking to study science or math, since Vinod was in that field. I was an education professional focused on diversity education training and also a mother who saw my own daughter teased while on the middle school math team, so I felt it very important to encourage girls into those fields.

Vinod came to this country from India as a graduate student, and we both received our graduate education and Ph.D.’s here, so we appreciate both the value of and challenge in funding one’s education. Also, as members of the Indian community here, we want to serve as visible examples in establishing this scholarship and encourage other Indian families to do so as well.

When my husband passed away, I took over his company, ElectroChem, which deals in hydrogen energy and fuel cells. It is clean technology with a bright future, and we work with clients such as NASA and the Department of Energy. We have been very glad to have a named fund with The Scholarship Fund of Concord and Carlisle supporting students for all these years. While I am glad that it assists with funding, my vision is that it could go even further by providing invaluable networking and mentoring help to recipients throughout their careers.

For example, one CCHS student took the initiative to ask me for an internship, and he subsequently wrote a college thesis based on a project he worked on at ElectroChem. I would like to see The Scholarship Fund of Concord and Carlisle community be an opportunity for networking and mentoring that would help young people go beyond where they would otherwise go, helping students develop business etiquette and training them on the essentials for career and life. For example, thank you notes, especially hand-written notes, can have great value and impact and can be important calling cards for success in life. When you want to make an impression that is out of the ordinary, those things are very important. I would like to see our scholarship recipients reach out to me to meet me for a cup of coffee, opening the door to a potential relationship. We can help these young people to grow a bit more, and I look forward to students taking that opportunity with me.