Mariotti is the founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, an international program dedicated to exposing low-income youth to the idea of entrepreneurship. He looked across at 17-year-old Kalief Rollins, winner of this year's Oppenheimer Funds/NFTE Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, and saw that he was calm and collected.

"I looked over at Kalief and he was so poised that it was inspirational. I thought if that kid can be so calm and show leadership, I can too," said Mariotti.

But then again, Rollins, who won the $10,000 challenge for developing Phree Kountry Clothing, which sells custom T-shirts with positive messages, has always displayed the calmness of a leader and the attributes of an entrepreneur.

When he was 7, the freshman at Los Angeles Southwest College began buying candy at the store and selling it to his classmates for a profit.

"I would take my lunch money and buy as much candy as I could, go back to school and sell it to different classmates. If I paid 50 cents, I would sell it for a dollar. When I got to middle school, I began selling jewelry," Kalief said. "When I was young I didn't know what being an entrepreneur meant, but my family always saw that in me."As a junior at Downey High School in Downey, Calif., Kalief found his way in to a NFTE program and began to learn the skills necessary to make his entrepreneurial inklings a reality. It all culminated in success when Kalief beat out 24,000 entrants and 28 finalists to win the challenge in New York City. Kalief and two runner-ups traveled to the White House to meet President Barack Obama.

Zoe Damacela, a senior at Whitney Young High School in Chicago, placed second and won $5,000 by creating a business plan for her custom-made clothing line. Scott Paiva, a freshman at Suffolk University in Boston, won third place for creating a business plan for Express Tax service, a tax-preparation service for young people.
Like the true entrepeneur that he is, Kalief sold President Obama one of his custom T-shirts for $20. The T-shirt reads: "Caution: Educated African-American Male."

"I wasn't really nervous but more excited. I felt very blessed and honored to have the President say he was proud of me and tell me to keep moving forward," said Kalief, who plans to transfer to the University of Southern California and pursue an MBA.

Kalief said that he'd like to see his T-shirt line, which is designed by his 22-year-old brother Anthony, evolve into a full clothing line, such as Sean John or Rocawear. Kalief said the idea for positive messages on the T-shirts came, because so many T-shirts have negative messages: "I was looking for something I would wear," said Kalief.

Expanding children's horizons, said Mariotti, is the main goal of NFTE:

My issue with the old educational establishment is that for a child born in to poverty, the emphasis is about being a worker. How do you get the job? My argument has been let's talk about that, but let them also weigh the idea of being a contractor, an entrepreneur and having an entity they control. That's how you get out of poverty; you have assets you can sell.

As a teacher 22 years ago, Mariotti found that teaching business also helped kids who had trouble learning basic reading and math. It worked with high-risk students and kids locked up on Rikers Island, New York City's jail:

They'd be 16 and not able to do simple arithmetic or understand sentence structure. When I started talking about money their brains started opening up. I talked to young people about how to own assets in their community, who owns the block and how to get ownership opportunities. Every child who is in poverty should be given a chance to learn about ownership and assets.

Some kids who are labeled "trouble" need a wider field and different ways to learn the skills they'll need later in life. Those are the same kids who are likely to rebel against a strictly structured environment but would excel where there is room for creativity and independence.

At NFTE, programs in 22 states and 12 countries, such as India, China and Belgium, help kids learn about marketing, pricing and sales development. Kalief said he learned the skills to make his business "legit."

For example, before taking the class, he was charging $5 per shirt, but he learned how the price of his shirt affected the perception of the quality of the product. Kalief also learned about profit margins. It took him almost $5 to make each shirt, leaving him with little to no money for profit or reinvestment and development.

Now Kalief is in the process of "rebranding" his business. He is reconsidering the name and marketing strategy.

"Kalief knows his numbers and understands his market. He understands who buys and why. He's learning about intellectual property laws. That's hard to do at that age," said Mariotti.

Kalief is on his way to being one of the groups success stories. Since 1987, more than 280,000 kids have
participated in NFTE programs, some of whom went on to own their own businesses. One of Mariotti's former students now owns an entire block in Brooklyn and is changing the neighborhood by opening businesses and revitalizing buildings. One of last year's finalists, Rodney Walker, was once in the foster system and homeless. He turned away from the gangs and street life that engulfed some of his 10 brothers and sisters and participated in NFTE. Today, he is on the Dean's list at Morehouse College.

"I think that in lower income areas minorities have some opportunities but not the same amount as some other areas," said Kalief. "Without this program, my business may have still been a thought in my head. Now I have real knowledge of how to start a business. I see myself moving forward and taking it as high as it can go."