A look at ourselves, our stories and the next generation of young entrepreneurs and business leaders... Founded in 1987 by Steve Mariotti, a former business owner and New York City public high school teacher, the mission of NFTE is to provide entrepreneurship education programs to youth from low-income communities. Our vision is that every young person will find a pathway to prosperity. As a math teacher in the South Bronx, Mariotti first established NFTE as a literacy and dropout prevention program for at-risk youth when he noticed that many of his students who could not read or write and had essentially been “written off” by the system, demonstrated a natural talent for entrepreneurship. Further, he discovered that his “troubled” students had skills that, if fostered, could benefit them in business and in life. These insights led him to formalize an entrepreneurship curriculum and establish NFTE as a way to introduce concepts of wealth creation and ownership to low-income young people worldwide. NFTE uses entrepreneurship as a vehicle to engage students in school, expose them to the market economy and help them to create an entrepreneurial mindset in order to remain competitive in the increasingly global marketplace. NFTE believes that schools must provide students with opportunities outside the classroom to realize their academic, social, and economic potential. By fostering learning connected to student interests and to life outside the school, NFTE provides students with tools for future success. This slidedeck is Steve's story, you might see some of your own families' story here, and much about the hopes and aspirations we all have for the next generation.