I am writing this review for someone else because said person has dealt with this company and fears retaliation.
Step-Up Venture University is a non-profit organization in Massachusetts that seeks to teach entrepreneurship and business to adults, high school students, middle school students, or anyone for that matter.
Step-Up Venture University has recently been contacting Boston-area high schools and offering their services with the claim that they are accredited by College Board to offer Advanced Placement (AP) credit. They hold no such accreditation. Such accreditation is not even pending as I write this. They hope to one day obtain such accreditation, but as of right now these promises of AP-credits for high school students' college applications are empty.
Step-Up Venture University's founder, Henry Shterenberg, is deceitful in his employment practices as well. He and his Chief Operating Officer, Sergey Kazakov recently put up an advertisement on Craigslist for a Public Relations Manager. The job description was typical of what a Public Relations Manager would normally be expected to do and stated that the position was salaried. According to the person they "hired, " during the interview he was told that he would work for the first month for $1,000 at which point the company would, if he performed, hire him at salary.
Once he accepted their terms, they informed him that his primary duty would be telemarketing to high schools and that since the firm had already hired a public relations professional he would be in charge of "outreach." Please also note that this "Public Relations Manager" had nothing to manage. At this point, the person in question decided to stick it out for the month for $1,000 while he sought other employment. He did what the company asked and at the end of the month informed them that the position had nothing to do with public relations, managing, or anything outside of telemarketing and that he wanted his $1,000 and to be done. During this meeting he was informed by the company's COO that he was, "... Confused. You are confusing this with some kind of company or firm that hires you and then pays you for some kind of position. That's not what this is." He was then asked if he had earned the $1,000 to which he responded that he had as the terms of the agreement were, at the time, to do what the company said for month to receive $1,000. He was then told he would receive the check in the mail.
The following week, this man received a check in the mail, post-dated for February for the amount of $500. He photocopied the check and mailed the original back with a letter reminding Step-Up Venture University that post-dating checks is illegal in the state of Massachusetts and demanded that he receive a valid check for the agreed upon amount of $1,000. He received a response the week after that daring him to take Step-Up Venture University to court (the company, of course, knowing that this person couldn't afford a lawyer and also never putting anything into writing about compensation or employment terms). Since the company never put anything into writing regarding pay, employment, or anything, there was little, if any legal recourse for this person.
These are the same people who teach Step-Up Venture University's "courses" in high schools, middle schools and elsewhere. You can judge for yourself whether or not these are the sort of people you want imparting "life skills" to your children.
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