Mr. McNeill, one of the first mentors to sign on, draws from his own experience. His father died when he was 6 years old, and at 21, he was co-manager of the family grain elevator business and farm operations in Thomas, Okla. Currently, a managing partner in SPP Mezzanine Funding, Mr. McNeill works with students from Suitland High School. The best part of being a mentor, he said, is watching the students gain the self-confidence and poise to run their own business.

Across the nation, there has been increasing interest among young people in running their own businesses. "The nation's youth are looking at entrepreneurship as a major alternative career as they are being shut out of a shrinking job market in inner cities," said Carl J. Schramm, president and chief executive of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Marie Harrison, 15, lives in a violence-ridden section of the Mission District of San Francisco where she struggles to get by as she cares for her 71-year-old grandmother, Maria, who recently suffered a stroke. Marie monitors her grandmother's blood pressure and helps prepares her food. She also helps raise her 12-year-old sister, Megan, as well as attend Immaculate Conception Academy.

Marie has lived with her grandmother, who is her legal guardian, on the same block since she was just over a year old. "The area where I live isn't safe. There's lots of drug and gang violence," she said. Last July, her cousin David was hit by a stray bullet.

Every Saturday, she said, she looks forward to attending a sewing and fashion program sponsored by the Turning Heads Project, which helps poor young people in San Francisco become more economically self-sufficient. "Marie gained a lot of self-confidence and new skills attending our sewing and fashion programs and learning entrepreneurship," said Jane Segal, her mentor and director for special projects.

Marie said, "We make pillows, skirts and purses in class." Piecing together fabrics donated by the Turning Heads Project, Marie fashioned her own prom dress. "One of my high school friends bought one of my creations for $40," Marie said in a telephone interview. "I'm saving the money for college. One day I would like to become a designer and own my own business."

One of her Turning Heads classmates, Patrice Moananu, 15, also lives with her grandmother, as well as five sisters in public housing in the Potrero Hill area of San Francisco. "I work as a youth intern at my school almost every day to help with the family finances," Patrice said. "I've attended the Turning Heads fashion and sewing program for about a year, where I learned about starting my own business. At first I wasn't good at sewing, but the class has given me a new skill and new self-confidence."