A Past Two Ten Scholar Reflects on Her Career and Longstanding Gratitude to the Footwear Industry 

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Joy Batra was named a Two Ten “Super Scholar” in 2009. Two Ten caught up with her to hear about her winding career journey and how Two Ten played a role in her success. 

Before she was a Harvard graduate, Bollywood actress or published author, Joy Batra was the daughter of a shoe person. To this day, that’s what she considers the starting point for her multi-faceted career. 

I’m barely a shoe person but my family was shoe people so the community took me in and took care of me when things got tough. I'll never forget that. 

"I’m barely a shoe person,” Joy told Two Ten in an interview. “But my family was shoe people so the community took me in and took care of me when things got tough. I'll never forget that.” 

In 2000, a workplace accident forced Joy’s father, Vijay K. Batra, to retire early from the footwear industry — a sudden change that left the family in a challenging financial position. Vijay had worked in footwear for nearly 30 years, starting as a salesman in Delhi, India, before moving to the United States and working for brands like K-Swiss and Nike, even serving as the president of Stride Rite’s international division. 

“Footwear was really his life,” Joy said. “Everywhere we went, we would look at what shoes people were wearing.” 

When it came time for her to apply for college, Joy favored Boston College for its strong finance and law programs and proximity to her home. However, financial aid options were limited, so her father recommended looking into Two Ten. Despite his injury, Vijay had stayed involved with the shoe industry for years after his retirement. 

"His spirit was not broken,” Joy said. “He still stayed very connected to the footwear industry. And I also had a lot of respect [for it] because footwear had given me such a great life.” 

Joy applied for the Two Ten scholarship in 2005 and graduated as a “Super Scholar” in 2009. The award supported Joy throughout all four years of her undergraduate studies, providing a foundation of financial security after graduation. That stability gave her the ability to make bold choices that ultimately shaped the course of her personal and professional life. 

Without a backlog of major student loans from undergrad, Joy enrolled in Harvard for law and business school and afterwards, moved to India to briefly pursue a career in Bollywood for nine months. 

“Without Two Ten, there is no chance that would have been possible,” Joy said. “If I was still paying back eight years of school at that time, I would have had to go straight to a law firm job. But because I was only dealing with graduate school expenses, I had more flexibility.” 

After coming back from India, Joy built up a portfolio of clients, offering services in law and finance on a freelance consulting basis. She eventually wrote about her journey to choosing this type of career in her book, The Freelance Mindset, which was published in 2023. 

Though she isn’t working directly in the shoe industry, Joy still sees herself as part of the broader footwear family. She hopes that the current cohort of Two Ten scholars feel similarly. 

“It is very surprising to me how small the world is and how often you run into people from your past or how one skill in a completely unrelated role or industry can help you years later in a different role or industry,” Joy said. “The more experiences you can round yourself out with, the better positioned you'll be in the future for whatever direction our careers, technology and our industry go.”