Educator and Founder of an International Entrepreneurship Movement

One of today’s leading experts in entrepreneurial education for at-risk youth, Steve Mariotti changed career paths in 1982 when he decided to move from the private sector and become a special education teacher in the New York City school system. He was assigned to such difficult neighborhoods as East New York and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, and the “Fort Apache” section of the South Bronx.

While teaching in these challenging environments, Mariotti gained insight into how to motivate his troubled, economically at-risk students, which was to teach them how to start and operate their own small businesses. His perceptions led to creating a program curriculum to bring entrepreneurial education to low-income youth. (Mariotti was mentored by Jaime Escalante

Jaime Escalante

Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutierrez was a Bolivian educator well-known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School, East Los Angeles, California...

 (the model for the teacher in the movie Stand and Deliver), who allowed him to present 40-minute lesson plans in his class.)

In 1987 Mariotti founded the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (now the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) — NFTE — which was granted 501(c)(3) non-profit status by the IRS the following year. Since then, Mariotti has steadily expanded NFTE’s operations, reaching over 400,000 young people by 2011. It has programs and licensees in 21 states and in The Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, China, the United Kingdom, India, New Zealand, Bermuda, Canada, Belgium, South Africa, Israel (and the West Bank city of Hebron). Advisors have included Loida Nicolas-Lewis

Loida Nicolas-Lewis

Loida Nicolas Lewis is a Filipino-born, New York-based industrialist, philanthropist, civic leader, motivational speaker, author, and lawyer.- Business interests :...

, Jawanza Kunjufu, and Jeff Raikes

Jeff Raikes

Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Raikes is the chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Until early 2008 Raikes was the President of the Microsoft Business Division and oversaw the Information Worker, Server & Tools Business and Microsoft Business Solutions Groups...

 of Microsoft. Some of NFTE’s board members include Diana Davis Spencer, Tucker York, and James Lyle. NFTE is frequently used as a model for other educational programs to teach entrepreneurial expertise and small-business formation.

Mr. Mariotti also co-founded a popular prison program: Inmates Teaching Entrepreneurship and Mentoring (ITEM). Prison inmates, in maximum security prisons, teach other prisoners the basic skills of starting a business as a way for them to stay in contact with their families and adapt to life after their sentence.

In 2011, NFTE received the Top Charity Award in China by a popular vote. which was widely distributed globally. Mariotti co-authored a position paper for the World Economic Forum

World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....

 in 2009, "Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs," He has also spoken at the Aspen Institute

Aspen Institute

The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues." The...

 and other major business and educational forums. He has been the subject of national media profiles on such programs as ABC Evening News and 20/20.

Mariotti is a graduate of the Ross School of Business

Ross School of Business

The Stephen M. Ross School of Business is the business school of the University of Michigan. Numerous publications have ranked the Ross School of Business' Bachelor of Business Administration , Master of Business Administration and Executive Education programs among the top in the country and the...

 at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

 (BBA and MBA). Additionally, he has studied at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, and Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...

.

Awards and honors

• Leavey Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Field of Free Enterprise Education, 1985
• Mobile Award for Top High School Economics Teacher in NY State, 1988
• National Award for Teaching Economics, The Joint Council of Economic Education, 1988
• Best Teacher of the Year, National Federation of Independent Businesses, 1988
• Bronx Business Hall of Fame, Bronx Community College Foundation, 1988
• Giraffe Project Citation for Risk-Taking Leadership, Everett Foundation, 1989
• Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, California Lutheran University
  California Lutheran University
  California Lutheran University is a university of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in Thousand Oaks, California.-Mission statement:The University's mission statement is as follows:...
  
  , 1989
• Minority Business Enterprise Project, 1989
• Honorary Doctorate in Business and Entrepreneurship, Johnson and Wales University, 1990
• Castle Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement, Social Category, Entrepreneurial Center of Manhattanville College
  Manhattanville College
  Manhattanville College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, located in Purchase, New York. Founded in 1841 it was known initially as Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart...
  
  , 1991
• Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Chief Executive Officer's Club
• Inc. Magazine
  Inc. (magazine)
  Inc. magazine, founded in 1979 and based in New York City, is a monthly publication focused on growing companies. The magazine publishes an annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., the "Inc...
  
  Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award
• Ernst & Young
  Ernst & Young
  Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....
  
   Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 1992
• National Director’s Entrepreneurship Award from the Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce
  United States Department of Commerce
  The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
  
  
• Appel Award, Price Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, 1994
• African American Business Hall of Fame Award for Best Teacher 2002
• Association of Education Publishers’ Golden Lamp Award, Best Lesson Plans 2004
• The ACE/Currie Foundation Humanitarian Venture Award
• America’s Top High School Business Teacher
• Salvatori Award
• Runner-up in Brooke Russell Astor Awards
• Ben Applebaum Award for Community Service 2006
• Lifetime achievement award from SOCIETY OF ENTRPRENEURSHIP EDUCATORS
• Lifetime achievement award from Extreme Entrepreneurship
• University of Michigan Business School, Entrepreneurship of the Year Award
• Association of Educational Publishers Award for Best Math Curriculum, 2010

Publications

• Your Financial Future 2011
• Entrepreneurship: Owning Your Future (11th Edition) 2009
• Entrepreneurship: Starting and Operating a Small Business (2nd Edition) with Caroline Glackin (2009) ISBN 0132366002
• Entrepreneurship: Owning Your Future with Tony Towle (2009) ISBN 9-780135-128442
• Entrepreneurs in Profile with Jenny Rosenbaum (2002)
• The Young Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Running a Business with Debra de Salvo (2000) ISBN 0812933060
• How to Start and Operate a Small Business
• Entrepreneurship: Starting and Operating a Small Business
• Educating the Next Wave of Entrepreneurs http://www.gvpartners.com/web/pdf/WEF_EE_Full_Report.pdf
• Kaizen Newsletter http://www.ethicsandentrepreneurship.org/20091005/interview-with-steve-mariotti/

Articles

• Remembering Ayn Rand, Huffington Post, 4/21/2011
• Teaching Capitalism in the Last Days of the USSR, Part One, Huffington Post, 5/17/2011
• Teaching Capitalism in the Last Days of the USSR, Part Two, Huffington Post, 5/18/2011
• Tips for Entrepreneurs Who Want to Start Not-for-Profit Organizations, Huffington Post, 5/23/2011
• Inside Ford Finance Staff, Huffington Post, 6/3/2011
• 24 Concepts Every Young Person Should Know About Business, Huffington Post, 6/6/11
• Good Summer Business Ideas for Kids 11-17 Huffington Post, 6/9/11
• Subjective Versus Objective Costs: How the Labor Theory of Value Almost Destroyed the World, Huffington Post, 6/20/11
• How to Start a Non-Profit, Huffington Post, 6/21/11/
• Questions to Ask Money Managers: A Guide for the Non-Profit Executive Huffington Post, 6/28/11
• Memories of Flint, Huffington Post, 7/3/11
• How and Why I Teach in Prisons, Huffington Post, 8/17/11
• My Favorite Teachers, Huffington Post, 8/28/11
• Up in Maine, Huffington Post, 8/30/11
• Raising Owner-Entrepreneurs Would Solve Youth Unemployment, Spur Growth, and Rescue Low-Income Communities , Huffington Post, 9/9/11
• September 11, Huffington Post, 9/11/11

External links

• NFTE website
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mariotti