Student Profile: Steve Gershman (A'11) and the Compass Fellowship

Compass Fellows and Zipcar co-founder Antje Danielson

Originally founded at Georgetown University, the Compass Fellowship, a two-year, social entrepreneurship program that is a subsidiary of the incubator Compass Partners, has already gained an immense interest from passionate student entrepreneurs. Senior Steve Gershman brought the Fellowship to Tufts this fall after meeting Compass Partners co-founders Neil Shah and Arthur Woods in Washington D.C.

While interning for Congress in D.C., Steve became frustrated with politics. "I offered ways that we could improve the system. All the ideas were, in my opinion, very practical and achievable but no one would even consider them." Majoring in international relations, Steve realized that the skills necessary to affect change and achieve his aspirations were more relevant to entrepreneurship than his core major classes.

After talking with Neil and Arthur, Steve saw that the Compass Fellowship was an ideal fit with the Tufts community and was eager to bring it to the Boston area. "At Tufts, we have the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, the Institute for Global Leadership, and the Tisch College for Active Citizenship. On top of that, Boston is a very entrepreneurial city; the culture just fit perfectly."

The Tufts chapter of Compass Fellows includes 15 freshmen fellows who were chosen after a rigorous process, which included a written application and a series of interviews with mentors. Six upperclassmen mentors are responsible for guiding the fellows through the program. The Compass Fellowship works in four phases: the first two phases involve personal and business skills development through a series of modules that feature executive and entrepreneurial speakers. In phase three, fellows gain hands-on experience through an internship with a social business in their field of interest. In the fourth and final phase, fellows are given the opportunity to start their own social venture with the support of Compass Partners.

Steve notes that although the program follows an "n+1" model of leadership where freshman look up to their mentors and upperclassmen look up to recent graduates, the relationship is also cyclical. "I might be looking up to the founders and graduates of the program, but I’m also learning a lot from the fellows themselves."

To date, the Fellowship has hosted several events in the Boston area featuring CEOs and entrepreneurs, including Zipcar co-founder Antje Danielson and Smartsitting founder Lauren Kay, a senior at Brown University who runs a babysitting and tutoring service with over 100 clients. The program strives to bring in successful individuals with diverse backgrounds so the fellows can gain insight into different perspectives of social entrepreneurship. The events are currently open to the Fellowship only. "It’s an application process and we selected only the most driven individuals, so we want to reward them for going through the program with us. We also want it to be an intimate environment. This isn’t a lecture and we want there to be interaction and dialogue."

In planning out the modules for the remainder of the year, Steve emphasized that Fellowship program is not a course. "While we do have a curriculum that covers the fundamental traits and skillsets necessary to be a social entrepreneur, we also retain the flexibility to cater our program to the individual fellows whenever necessary. We have modules instead of classes to highlight the interactivity and intimacy of the program. Before modules Fellows are often invited to speak informally with the speaker over a cup of coffee, and for a number of modules we travel to places like Clear Conscience Café or Hangout Industries to discuss social impact with entrepreneurs where they most produce it."

Upcoming events include a boot camp in February where Fellows participate in speed-dating with 15 business experts to finalize their social business idea, as well as the Graduation Gala, a celebration of the impact of social entrepreneurship where Fellows present their business ideas to past program speakers and the general Tufts community.

One short-term goal for the Compass Fellowship Tufts chapter is to collaborate with the already existing Entrepreneurial Leadership Program – something the freshman fellows have already shown interest in. Eventually, Compass Partners also hopes to expand into other schools in the Boston area, including Harvard, Babson, Boston University, and MIT – the program currently is in place at three other schools in addition to Georgetown. Through Compass Partners, Steve hopes to build a diverse and empowering community of fellows and mentors who will be able to network and collaborate on their social ventures.