In the 8th grade, Joe Kellman left school to help in his dad's glass shop in the mostly Polish, Jewish Chicago neighorhood of Lawndale. Years later, he inherited the business and transformed the Globe Glass & Mirror Company into a multi-million-dollar company.

Now a successful businessman, Kellman had developed a strong passion for mentorship and giving back. He turned his attention to his old neighborhood of Lawndale, now one of the roughest in Chicago. First, Kellman launched an after-school boxing gym for boys, but soon realized that, while boxing helped with discipline and physical skills, it didn't alter the long-term outcomes of youth in the community. So, Kellman turned the gym into the Better Boys Foundation (BBF) to better meet the multiple and evolving needs of Lawndale's youth. The BBF provides after-school programs, scholarships, and welfare services. But he wasn't finished yet.

Kellman was also a long-time advocate for public school reform, and wanted to connect the innovative world of corporate business with philanthropy and education. After 15 years of developing the notion of business reforming education, Joe Kellman's idea came to life. In 1988, he founded the Corporate Community School in Lawndale, based on the principle of applying common business techniques to public education.

The only school in the US run entirely by business, CCS is tuition-free. Open 12 hours a day, 11 months of the year, CCS functions as a community center as well as a school, providing social and health services to kids and their families. Kellman's ethos is clearly present in the day-to-day operations of the school; teachers at CCS, who don't have tenure, take responsibility for the welfare of their students outside the classroom as well as inside. Parents are encouraged and eager to get involved. And the kids love it. One parent said, "The thing I notice is that they don't want to go home." Principal Elaine Mosley says that CCS proves that all kids can be "powerful learners" in the right environment.

Kellman is determined to find "corporate heroes" in other major cities to fund and run similar schools. He says, "American business will have to force the school reform agenda." Kellman also points out, "Each year's class of dropouts costs the nation $240 billion in lost earnings and foregone taxes over their lifetime."

Despite never finishing school, Joe Kellman knew the power of mentorship and education. He says, "Without my father's training I don't know what I would have become."

Update: In 2010, Joe Kellman died at home in Texas on his 90th birthday. CCS, the school he founded, is now one of Chicago Public Schools' top performing elementary schools.