Radhika Mitra
Founder/CEO of Renaissance Now
University of California, Santa Cruz
Computer Science major
Her non-profit has raised more than $35,000 to support local artisans and combat poverty around the globe.
GLAMOUR: Flash back to pre-college. What influenced you to start an international non-profit?
Radhika Mitra: I moved to America from India when I was six years old, and a decade later I went back to India for a visit. The poverty I saw was a real shock. You just don’t see it in the same way in the U.S., and when I was in a taxi one night, a little boy with no shirt approached, trying to peddle a handmade necklace. We were stopped, but suddenly the light turned green and a rickshaw completely trampled him.
GLAMOUR: That’s awful. How’d that experience lead you to make the connection between empowering local artists and fighting poverty by founding Renaissance Now?
RM: I went home to my grandmother really distraught and asked her why people had to peddle these beautiful things they’d made – things that I’d see in stores in America. She explained that there were all these artisan families who come to India’s cities to sell their handmade artwork from their villages, and that it’s often the women and children doing the selling.
GLAMOUR: As a 17-year-old living in the States, how’d you go about finding a way to help?
RM: I didn’t want to go home and just raise and donate money. That didn’t seem satisfying. I went back to India over my spring break and visited this huge fair where artisans come out and show their wares, and that’s where I spoke with artisans directly. I speak the local language, so it was really easy for me to communicate and get a real understanding of what they felt they wanted and needed.
GLAMOUR: And just a few years later, RenNow has assisted more than 10,000 families. Exactly what kind of support do you offer, and how do you offer it from college?
RM: It’s training and tools, mostly. My sister and I created a five-part program that includes marketing, giving free tools, offering quality product training – how to create good zippers, things like that, and helping people develop products in the field of their niche that they can sell.
GLAMOUR: As you go about supporting artists in far-away countries like India, Romania, and Bangladesh, how do you reach people and get them to value what you have to offer?
RM: A lot of it is through RenNow’s YouTube channel. We post DIY tutorials, mostly featuring my sister, and have projects where we’re donating tools directly to featured artists. We have over a million views that way. We also get people who are travelling to different countries we’re working with to bring the tools and trainings directly to the artists.
GLAMOUR: Do you have a specific interest in the arts? Were you entrepreneurial and crafty as a kid?
RM: Oh yeah. People would come over, and I’d start playing the piano and tell them, “You have to buy a ticket to watch me play.” My parents were super embarrassed. Now I also do some fashion photography as a side business.
GLAMOUR: Another business! What do you see yourself doing after you graduate? Will you keep up your work with RenNow?
RM: I love fashion and technology, and 20 years from now I’d love to have my own company that combines the two. It’s kind of a weird combination, but I walk into my engineering classes filled with all guys, and I’m definitely the only one wearing a cute dress. I think having my own company is a great way to use my skills to contribute. I’m living in a place where I have access to all these resources, and it feels like it’s my talent, my duty, to support other people’s talents. The artists RenNow works with certainly have more ability to create amazing art than I do. So I want to continue being a catalyst by transporting what they need.