Uncommon Talent: Chaula Kothari Helps Social Entrepreneurs Succeed
Launching your own social change venture is a labor of passion, creativity, and dedication. Social entrepreneurs typically possess these qualities in spades, but sometimes need support in turning their vision into reality. To that end, Teach For America developed a new program, the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, to provide its alumni with the tools and knowledge required to create systemic change through social entrepreneurship.
As its inaugural director, Chaula Kothari is building the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative from the ground up. Here we share a recent interview during which Chaula discusses her experience supporting social entrepreneurship worldwide and her thoughts on what it takes to be a successful social entrepreneur.
What inspired Teach For America to create the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative?
Teach For America’s mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation’s most promising future leaders in this effort. When Teach For America started 17 years ago, the program placed 500 corps members as teachers in six urban and rural low-income regions. Since then, the organization has expanded to placing approximately 5,000 corps members in 26 regions and has 12,000 alumni who continue to work from within education and from every sector to expand opportunities for children in low-income communities. Teach For America has created an environment where talented and driven recent college graduates can have a real impact on one of the most important social problems in this country.
The experience of teaching successfully in low-income communities is a transformative one for our corps members – it influences the career path for many of them, creating a new leadership force for social change. As we grow our size and impact, we are systemically changing the way young people view public service and their role in social change. The Social Entrepreneurship Initiative is one example of how Teach For America is seizing an opportunity to create an even bigger social impact—by supporting our alumni in their development as leaders in social entrepreneurship.
How do you define a social entrepreneur? How do Teach For America and its alumni fit that definition?
Being a social entrepreneur is about addressing systemic problems. Money and resources can fill a gap, but how are you going to change the way people think and behave? That is the question social entrepreneurs set out to answer.
Teach For America alumni are in a unique position to move into social entrepreneurship. They have spent at least two years on the ground teaching and have gained an intimate view into problems such as literacy, low graduation rates, and other educational inequities. This experience is what fuels the ideas to address these problems in new and creative ways.
Historically, a number of Teach For America alumni have launched their own social ventures. Among these are charter schools, such as KIPP, YES Prep, and district schools like Generation Schools. Other alumni have launched mission-driven for-profit companies, such as Red Schoolhouse Software, a software provider for classrooms which counts the Los Angeles Unified School District among its clients.
Building on the success of these social ventures, the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative was created to formalize the career support available to alumni interested in social entrepreneurship.
How has your career path led you to this new role at Teach For America?
At the start of my career, my background was purely technical. After earning my degree in telecommunications engineering, I realized I was more interested in exploring the political, cultural, and policy implications of technology. I returned to school, earned my master’s degree in International Relations, and then started working in the public sector in nuclear disarmament research.
From there, I was fortunate enough to find a position at Ashoka, an organization that fosters social entrepreneurship worldwide. I was originally hired to support the selection program of US-based social entrepreneurs, and was then asked to help build a new team for Ashoka’s office in India. Working in India provided me with an amazing sense of on-the-ground social entrepreneurship. From there, I returned to the States and led Ashoka’s global staff recruitment program.
The four years I spent at Ashoka helped me to identify the characteristics common to successful social entrepreneurs, namely a combination of drive, vision, and business know-how. This experience equipped me with the tools and knowledge I needed to move into a role where I now help others realize their visions.
What is most exciting to you about your role?
To start, the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative is only a few months old! I was hired in November to build and develop this program and to me, the opportunity to inspire others to start their own social change ventures, as well as create a platform that will provide the tools and resources for them to do so, is really exciting. We have seen strong interest from the alumni so far. Some interesting existing initiatives and new ideas that I have come across so far include a documentary training program for urban youth, an organization exploring ways to leverage hip-hop culture to bring about social change, and a college preparation program for high-school students.
My position is part of the Alumni Affairs department, so I get to work closely with the other alumni programs that focus on political and school leadership opportunities..
Besides working closely with internal departments, I get to partner with outside groups to provide funding, strategic planning, and consulting services for alumni interested in starting their own social change ventures. I enjoy being part of a larger community of support that new social entrepreneurs can tap into; access to a community and the resources it provides is a key factor of a social entrepreneur’s ability to succeed.
What challenges do you see for professionals interested in pursuing a career in social entrepreneurship? What general skills are needed for this type of work?
Social entrepreneurship is not always thought about as a full-time career. A lot of people have the desire to just start something, but they are unsure how this translates into a realistic, long-term career. Part of our program’s mission is to shape the perception of social entrepreneurship as a viable professional choice and to help prospective social entrepreneurs address the challenges of turning their life’s passion into their life’s work.
Social entrepreneurs need to rise above the myth that social entrepreneurship is solely driven by the heart, and not by sound business practices. Successful social entrepreneurs possess the same competencies as traditional business entrepreneurs, such as the abilities to plan strategically, manage people and programs, and measure results.
Being able to scale operations and manage growth is key. Ideally, social entrepreneurs should grow themselves out of the job. A true measure of success is when others begin to copy your idea..
Finally, what advice do you have for social entrepreneurs interested in starting their own organizations?
First of all, social change comes in all shapes and sizes. You don’t need to start a 501c3. You don’t have to give up your full time job. Everyone as a citizen has a right and a duty to social change. You can be a full citizen working for social change no matter what line of work you are in.
If you plan to start your own organization, you need to be absolutely committed to and happy with what you are doing. If you’re not happy to take on the challenges that come with starting your own organization, you will not do a good job of helping others.
Lastly, remember to consider your own personal and professional growth when launching a new venture. Strive for that growth. Strive to be happy with your job and career path. That way you’ll be able to devote yourself even better to social change.
This article was written by Commongood Careers and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
For more information about nonprofit and socially entrepreneurial careers, visit Commongood Careers at http://www.cgcareers.org.