Nathaniel Koloc is the Co-Founder of TerraShift

Can you tell us a little bit about TerraShift and what inspired you to start it?

TerraShift is building a career accelerator program for top college grads interested in the field of social enterprise – something like a Teach for America for the social sector. The program will accept grads with backgrounds in business, engineering, and liberal arts. Participants will get trained in specific skills like business plan writing, market research, proposal writing, sales initiatives, financial analysis and will work in teams on real client projects – clients will be in the fields of agriculture and food systems, water, renewable energy, and public health. At the end of the fellowship,TerraShift will help participants get jobs in the sector of their choice.

I started TerraShift because of my experiences trying to find meaningful work in the sector – despite having a solid academic background, a lot of business experience, and a strong level of determination, it was still really difficult to get traction – due mostly to the fact that there still aren’t a ton of good jobs in social enterprise but that is slowly changing. I observed that there were certain barriers to people my age not getting work in the space like not knowing where to look, not being connected to the right networks, not having relevant experience – so the program is designed to remove those barriers, and give people a structured space to plan their approach into their career.

How does TerraShift Fellowship differ from other college aged social entreprise fellowships like Compass Partners?

TerraShift’s fellowship program is for college graduates, not college students. We see ourselves as a different part of the talent development pipeline – so we’re really supportive of other groups doing similar things. New Sector Alliance’s Residency in Social Enterprise is the closest program to the one we’re building, but that one, like many post-grad fellowships, places an individual participant at one org for one year. Our model involves more variety – participants work in teams, on a variety of projects for numerous organizations, in different sectors. We feel this gives them a better overview of multiple fields, increasing the likelihood that they discover what they’re really passionate about while getting a range of experience.

You’re currently an Unreasonable Institute Fellow, what’s the biggest thing you’ve learned there so far?

As an Unreasonable fellow, the biggest thing I’ve learned so far is to trust my instincts and continue to develop our business methodically and carefully – to resist the urges to sprint before we’re ready, and to talk a lot before we have the program up and running and the kinks worked out. We’re building it from scratch, starting with expanding our client services – so though it’ll take an extra 6 months, this strategy will ensure that the entire program is based on a really strong market-based foundation.

What has been your biggest challenge in getting Terrashift off the ground?

My biggest challenge in getting TerraShift off the ground has been and continues to be, communicating the entire vision to people quickly and effectively. To this day, despite hours of thinking and practice, I still don’t really feel like the vision can be reduced into an elevator pitch. We’re careful about communicating distinct value propositions to different stakeholders. But things are going well – we’re about to move from 2 full time to 4 full time and a few part time, at the end of the summer.

Where do you see TerraShift in 5 years?

In 5 years I see the TerraShift fellowship including placements in the USA and emerging markets, doing custom talent development for large companies, and partnered with graduate schools to be either degree-granting or to be an option for-credit as part of other programs, something like how a study abroad semester fits into an undergrad career. I see us moving thousands of participants through the program, delivering immense value to the field.

How can our readers help you push forward your mission?

There are some really direct and immediate ways that people can get involved!

• College seniors or recent grads, 1-5 years out of school, who are interested in social enterprise, CSR, or sustainability can get in touch with us to see if they might be a good fit for Terrashift, we have a lot of good opportunities.
• People who work at social enterprises or innovative nonprofits can get in touch with us to inquire about our offerings.
• People working at universities that see an opportunity to partner or collaborate can get in touch, we’d love to talk!