Published: October 1, 1990

Big Wheels On Campus

With a timely shove in the right direction, he believes, "kids like that'' can make an honest living.

Mariotti is founder and president of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship to Handicapped and Disadvantaged Youth--a long name, with a reach to match. In Manhattan, the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Newark, N.J., and Philadelphia, Mariotti and his team of teachers are doling out financial knowhow--and venture capital--to keep children from growing up to become a financial drain.

He recruits them through word-ofmouth and, more often than not, on the basketball court. Once hooked, "I take the kids through everything they need to run a small business,'' says Mariotti. "There's a trip to the stock exchange. We visit the wholesalers. I teach basic record keeping, marketing, how to fill out a tax return, venture capital, how...