Steve Mariotti was living a successful corporate life when he decided that he needed a change. He didn’t buy a sports car, get a toupée, or start dating 20 year-olds. Ok, he could have done those things, but we have no reason to believe that he did he did. He chose to leave his job and to start teaching special education in the New York City school system. This presented obvious challenges. Teaching special ed can be hard enough in a community with extensive resources, but it must be near impossible in underserved public schools like those in New York City. Mariotti realized that one of the only ways that he could reach his students was by teaching them how to run a business. They loved the subject matter. As Mariotti developed a entrepreneurship based curriculum for his job as a special ed teacher, he realized that he could extend the reach of his educational successes. He founded the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship with the goal of bringing entrepreneurial education to low-income youth

Entrepreneurial Education

The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) has now been around for over 20 years and has programs in 21 states and 14 countries. All it takes is a look at some of NFTE’s recent alumni who have started their own businesses to see how successful the organization has been. The power of entrepreneurism is quite amazing. Not only are NFTE’s students getting an alternative education through the organization’s programs, but they are also being empowered emotionally and financially by being responsible for their own successes. We’re really impressed by NFTE and their website, so be sure to browse around to get more information on the organization.

NFTE is a modest sized organization with 79 employees and a $15 million annual budget. They have locations across the country, but look to be hiring mostly at their headquarters in New York City. They have two job listings that appear to be geared towards new college grads, but it’s a bit hard to determine if both are actually entry-level. On the NFTE Jobs page there is a listing for a Development Associate that lists no experiential requirements; however, there is also an Idealist.org listing for this job that says 3 years of experience are required. The job description does say that applicants should have a “capacity to deal with ambiguity,” so maybe this is some kind of test. The other job listing is not on the NFTE website, but is on Idealist. It is as a Development Assistant. These are similar jobs, both having to do with fundraising, but we’re not sure which one you should apply for. We guess you’ll have to deal with ambiguity. You can send a resume and cover letter to hr@nfte.com.

The NFTE also has presences in Baltimore, the Bay Area, Chicago, Greater Dallas, Fairfield / Westchester County, Greater Los Angeles, New England, New York, Pittsburgh, South Florida, and Greater Washington D.C. Although they don’t currently appear to have job openings at these locations, you should certainly watch to see if anything is listed in the near future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• NFTE.com
• Jobs at the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship
• About NFTE
• What NFTE Does
• NFTE’s Alumni Profiles
• NFTE Facts and Figures

Would you rather give up your job search and chase your entrepreneurial dream? Leave a comment and tell us about the business that you want to start.

We've identified National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• all employers
• California
• Connecticut
• development
• education
• entrepreneurship
• Florida
• Illinois
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• New York
• non-profit
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Washington DC

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