Environmental leader and educational advocate, Monica Kachru, did not follow a planned path to her career as the Director of Energy Supply at Eversource Energy and Founder/CEO of Anaya Scholars. Instead, Kachru perused the “scenic route” to what mattered to her and is now transforming lives and impacting communities with her development of renewable energy and non-profit work.
“A lesson I learned early on is you don’t always have to know where a decision will lead you,” said Kachru. “You just have to be curious and follow through.”
Kachru shared how resilience and loss inspired her with purpose in her presentation, “A Personal Journey from Loss to Legacy,” during the Beacon Hill Women’s Forum’s (BHWF) first forum of the season on September 8 at the Union Club of Boston.
Kachru was raised in India, in a culture that valued academics, and children were expected to become engineers or doctors to make their families proud.
“I quickly realized that wasn’t me,” embraced Kachru. “I wasn’t going to follow a pack.”
Kachru chose to study economics because she found it to be a fascinating way of making sense of an imperfect world – understanding business, finance, human behavior, and implementation.
While attending college, Kachru became concerned with the environment and pollution; so, she began commuting to classes on her bicycle, admittedly an unsafe transportation option in India. After a conversation with a fellow student about reducing emissions, the invisible 19-year-old Kachru convinced her to also ride a bike to school. The interaction was another major lesson in her life: it was a display of activism about something that she felt to be true.
“Find value. Find what matters and lean in and go first because sometimes people are waiting for someone else to do something that they’d like to do anyway,” emphasized Kachru. “Be the catalyst. Go for it.”
Kachru married young after graduation and moved to the United States, where she earned a degree in energy and environmental studies. Becoming accustomed to new geographies, grasping a new language, and re-learning how to relate to the world were difficult. She felt like she did not belong in any room that she walked into.
“I felt that I needed to work harder – that I needed to learn the game that was developed by the men to earn my space,” believed Kachru. “Then I realized over time that you don’t have to be more like the people in the room. Your difference gives you a perspective that others don’t have.”
Kachru explained the importance of seeing the bigger picture: pulling one’s personal experiences and skills together to be a part of the solution.
She focused on that mindset when starting a clean energy business in Nigeria, where she met entrepreneurs who had the passion, but lacked the resources to shape their ideas into reality.
“I had a vision that we could help a lot of businesses there transition to solar and stop burning diesel,” described Kachru. “When you speak with confidence, people listen.”
Kachru brought massive organizations and academia together to collaborate with entrepreneurs in creating job opportunities and solutions in the advancement of sustainable energy.
“My career never made sense to anybody,” admitted Kachru. “Every decision was very intentional when you look back. I have always followed what interested me and have never regretted that.”
Like her mother, Kachu’s eldest daughter, Anaya, was ardent and outspoken about a project of hers that assessed the discrepancies of resources in inner city education systems. The high school senior had a startup of her own, was head of the robotics team, and on her way to MIT when she tragically passed in 2017.
Amidst her despair and grief – encircled around a supportive circle of six friends, cooking cathartically – Kachru built a foundation in her daughter’s memory continuing the project that she was passionate about.
Anaya Scholars helps first-generation, low-income students through financial support and mentorships, available 24/7. Mentors, like BHWF Co-President Suzanne Norman, provide internship and workplace training as well as financial literacy.
“It’s the students in the middle – where the majority of students are – who often get overlooked. We wanted to focus on kids who showed resilience and hard work, who didn’t have the bandwidth to have a resume,” explained Kachru. “Leveling the playing field to us meant giving them the money to go to college and giving them a mentor who could speak about the unspoken rules of college. Our program is about unlocking potential.”
Anaya Scholars participants have an over 95% college graduation rate and outperform national averages for first-generation, low-income students.
“We think with our head, but lead with our heart. You need that to solve a problem,” embraced Kachru. “Impact doesn’t start with certainty. It starts with action. Sometimes it’s as simple as riding a bike.”
