• The Kalpana Chawla ISU Scholarship fund was founded by alumni of the International Space University (ISU) in 2010 to support Indian student participation in international space education programs.

• The Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship program was instituted by the Indian Students Association (ISA) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2005 for meritorious graduate students.
• The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award at the University of Colorado, given since 1983, was renamed for Chawla.
• In Karnal, Chawla's birthplace, at least 30,000 school children and citizens joined hands to make a 36.4-km-long human chain to support the demand for a Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College in the city, which was announced by Health Minister of India C. P. Thakur and later promised by Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. The Kalpana Chawla Medical College Nirman Committee, backed by volunteers and activists of various organizations, supported by students from 34 schools, swarmed the roads and formed a chain along the roads in Karnal to demonstrate that they continued to revere Chawla as an outstanding astronaut.  On November 18, 2013, the foundation stone of the college was laid in her memory by the state government.
• The University of Texas at Arlington dedicated the Kalpana Chawla Memorial on May 3, 2010, in Nedderman Hall, one of the primary buildings in the College of Engineering.