Get `Em While They're Young

On the fourth floor of Norman Thomas High School in midtown Manhattan, past the metal detector at the front door, up the elevator that can be run only by key, through a hallway of bantering teenagers in ripped jeans and T-shirts, sit seven professionals from accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP in blue and gray suits.

The troupe from Deloitte spends Friday mornings from 7:25 to 9:25 working as mentors in a program called Virtual Enterprise. For the 45 schools in the program, the idea is to invite local businesspeople to help students set up and run virtual businesses, thereby teaching them the work ethic and skills of the working world.