wharton school of business tour

Experience The Wharton School

Virtually explore The Wharton School in a fully immersive 360-degree experience.

Aria doesn't work without JavaScript.

Need to know how to enable it? Go here.

• Youth Program
• Wharton Online

The best of both worlds: Business and More

Explore ideas, think strategically, make an impact., business makes things happen and affects every part of society. at wharton, the world’s premier business school, you will gain knowledge and experience you need to become a leader in business and make a positive impact on today’s challenging economic and social issues. wherever you want to go in life, a wharton education will empower you every step of the way..

See how our students put knowledge into action.

How determination, critical thinking helped this wharton undergrad cycle the world’s highest volcano, en garde penn’s fencing captain shares her favorite things about wharton and philly, student profiles.

Get to know some of our students.

• Youth Program
• Wharton Online

Global Immersion Programs

When you learn at wharton, you can lead anywhere in the world..

Business is the means for creating opportunity around the world, and Wharton’s commitment to global engagement prepares you for every challenge in the international business environment. You learn the language of global business, engage with complex interconnected global issues, gain opportunities to study and travel abroad, and become an empowered global citizen.

The Global Immersion Program (GIP ) is an elective course, MGMT656, designed to provide a high-level survey of the economic, cultural and geo-political drivers behind regions integral to the global economy. By attending faculty lectures and traveling abroad to meet with local business leaders, government officials, and Wharton alumni, students have the opportunity to learn from a tremendous group of professionals while also immersing themselves in another culture and building strong relationships with their GIP cohort. The course is composed of on-campus sessions, a multi-week study tour, and written assignments. Programs depart after finals in December and during Spring Break in March. Since its inception in 1993, more than 2,500 Wharton MBA students have participated in the GIP. Many have returned saying it was one of the highlights of their Wharton careers.

The overall objectives of the program are:

• To provide an understanding of the region’s business, cultural, and political environments;
• To achieve a working knowledge of local business practices through direct interaction with managers and government officials;
• To explore the value of different economic models as benchmarks for global business practices; and
• To promote intercultural awareness and communication

The Global Immersion Program consists of three main components:

• On-Campus Sessions
• International Study Tour
• A Final Deliverable

As a credit-bearing course, you will be evaluated on your attendance and participation during the program as well as the quality of written work.  Grades will be given on a pass/fail basis.

Note:  The GIP may only be taken on a P/F basis and therefore does not count toward the 1cu of P/F you are permitted to take each semester.

ON-CAMPUS SESSIONS

Each section will meet for about five class sessions during the quarter preceding travel.  The sessions typically meet in the early evening, not to conflict with other classes and exams.  The sessions are led by faculty or staff area specialists. You and your student colleagues will discuss the history, political systems, social structures and economies of your chosen region of study.  Assigned readings will serve to augment classroom lectures and discussion.

During this period, you will participate in additional co-curricular sessions designed to prepare you for what to expect on the program with respect to travel in an unfamiliar environment and the particular schedule of visits arranged.  You will be provided with information on business etiquette, language and cultural expectations.  You may also receive information on sightseeing resources to help you plan your free time.  Professionals from the Travel Services of Penn’s Student Health Services will provide an important health and safety overview and travel health documents to inform you of necessary immunizations and other health and safety resources.

This component of the course is the immersion experience during Winter break or Spring, following semester exams.  Each immersion experience consists of several basic features: 1) reflection sessions, 2) company/government meetings and 3) cultural events.

• Company/Government Meetings:  This feature of the program is designed to introduce you to the region through direct interaction.  During meetings with business leaders and managers, you will see how they run their companies, how market forces influence their decisions, and what they perceive as current and future challenges and opportunities.  By visiting both production facilities and corporate headquarters, you will see how management decisions directly affect operations and personnel. Government influence on commerce is unique to each country.  You will discuss relations between the public and private sectors with officials from national and regional regulatory agencies.  The objective here is to provide an introduction to government commercial policy and its effectiveness in stimulating business growth.
• Cultural Events:  Throughout the immersion experience, you will have opportunities to learn about culture and its influence on society.  These might take the form of planned group events such as a city tour or an excursion to a significant historical area.  Receptions with Wharton alumni and students will allow you to interact with your counterparts on a less formal basis and develop a valuable network of contacts.  The importance of unplanned informal cultural activities cannot be overemphasized, since they expose you to social norms without the constraints of prescribed expectations.

ASSIGNMENTS

• Students will, in collaboration with their teams, prepare a profile for a selected company visit on the GIP (teams will be assigned, and the list of companies will be available on the course Canvas site).  This profile will provide your classmates with important background information about the companies, including relevant trends and the issues they face.  We will add completed profiles to a comprehensive travel brochure for your reference and will ask you to present the profile to the group during the study-tour.
• Final Assignment: The course will conclude with a group presentation on a particular theme or focus related to material that you learned through the GIP, designed by the group in conjunction with the Faculty Director.

Newsletters

DP Daybreak

Our daily newsletter rounding up all of the top headlines from the DP. Get it Monday-Friday in your inbox. Free.

34th Street Magazine's "Toast" is a semi-weekly newsletter with the latest on Penn's campus culture and arts scene. Delivered Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Free.

Penn, Unbuttoned

Penn, Unbuttoned is Penn's only intentionally satirical newsletter, giving you your weekly dose of comedy from Under the Button every Wednesday. Free.

Quaker Nation

Quaker Nation is a weekly sports newsletter covering all things Penn sports. Delivered Monday mornings to your inbox. Free.

Recruiter's Row

Recruiter's Row is a biweekly recruitment newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on all things employment related. Get it in your inbox every other Wednesday. Free.

Print Edition of The Daily Pennsylvanian

Get our award-winning print editions of The Daily Pennsylvanian delivered to your doorstep every week.

I've already signed up

The Daily Pennsylvanian is a student-run nonprofit.

Please support us by disabling your ad blocker on our site.

Wharton returns to No. 1 spot in 2024 U.S. News ranking of MBA programs

The Wharton School reclaimed its top spot on the 2024-2025 U.S. News & World Report's Best Business Schools ranking, tying with Stanford University.

The list of MBA programs, which was published on April 9, returns Wharton to the No. 1 spot following its No. 3 ranking last year. The previously top-ranked University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business now shares the No. 3 position with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, with the MIT Sloan School of Management at No. 5. 

Wharton last ranked No. 1 in the 2022-2023 version of the rankings, before falling to No. 3 the next year. In the most recent list, Wharton specifically placed No. 1 in executive MBA, finance, and real estate programs and No. 2 in marketing and accounting. 

U.S. News listed 124 business schools across the country. It determined the list based on survey data that schools directly reported for fall 2023 and early 2024. Unlike last year, the list did not include any MBA programs that failed to submit the most recent survey data.

Penn students left 'panicked and puzzled' by competitive Wharton club application process

'The kids really need this': Wharton student group allegedly withholds $90,000 promised to charity

The methodology evaluated factors including employment rates, post-graduate earnings, and salary by profession to determine placement success at each business school. The quality assessment score was derived from ratings provided by business school peers and recruiters as well as academic statistics for admitted students, such as median undergraduate GPA.

In February, Wharton placed No. 1 on Financial Times' list of 100 business schools globally. The ranking followed Wharton's exclusion from the FT's top business schools ranking in 2023 — its first absence in 25 years — due to the school failing to reach the alumni survey respondent threshold. 

Wharton also recently ranked No. 3 by Fortune, No. 5 by Forbes, and No. 8 by Bloomberg. Last year, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and the Perelman School of Medicine withdrew their participation in the U.S. News rankings. Both schools announced that they would no longer report data, citing concerns with the methodology of the rankings. Wharton has continued to submit data to U.S. News.

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.

PennConnects

More like this.

• Youth Program
• Wharton Online

Looking Back on This Year’s Impact Tour

During this year’s Wharton Impact Tour, Dean Erika James shared her hopes for the Wharton School with alumni in six cities around the world: Atlanta, Seoul, Shanghai, Seattle, New York, and Hong Kong. She acknowledged the School’s resiliency in the face of challenges and celebrated its MBA and undergraduate programs continuing their reign as the best in the world. She also examined the evolving global economy and answered questions from attendees. In each city, Dean James was joined by another business superstar from the Wharton community.

On September 28 in Atlanta, Rekha Menon-Varma, WG’06, co-president of the Wharton Club of Atlanta and an expert on sustainability, joined Dean James for a conversation about how business leaders can expand opportunity. Dean James shared how Wharton’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) majors can equip students to find solutions to the world’s pressing business issues.

Less than a month later, on October 11, Dean James flew to Seoul to recognize Wharton’s influence on the Korean economy. She was welcomed to the stage by Sanghyun Samuel Kim, C’85, W’85, the president of the Wharton Club of Korea. The dean praised local alumni for relaunching in-person events, following several years of virtual programming due to the pandemic.

Days later, Dean James made her way to China. On October 17 in Shanghai, the dean and David Hsu, Richard A. Sapp Professor of Management, talked about the triumphs and troubles of entrepreneurship. When one of the attendees asked Dean James and Hsu how AI will affect entrepreneurs and laborers alike, they agreed computers will never replace humankind’s empathy and judgment.

The Impact Tour returned to the United States, with a stop in Seattle on November 19. Dean James was joined by Mike Sievert, W’91, the president and CEO of T-Mobile. Sievert shared how he drove T-Mobile from its spot as the fastest declining wireless provider to the fastest growing. The dean and Sievert explored what it means to leverage technology to connect team members and shape their organizations’ cultures.

On February 21, more than 500 members of the Wharton community came together in New York City, for the Impact Tour’s penultimate stop. The iconic Jeremy Siegel, the Wizard of Wharton, delivered his legendary lecture on the stock market before sitting down with Dean James for a thoughtful conversation that touched on the power of a Wharton education. Siegel shared his appreciation for his relationship with the School and emphasized the value it added to his career. We recorded Siegel’s program and Q&A session with Dean James, and you can watch it on YouTube.

To close out this year’s Wharton Impact Tour, Senior Vice Dean João Gomes joined Dean James for an engaging program in Hong Kong, on March 12. Gomes highlighted Wharton’s competitiveness among other schools. He said one of the reasons Wharton stays at the forefront of business education is because of its diversity in classrooms.

The Impact Tour is one way Wharton keeps its alumni close to each other and the School. Where will the Wharton Impact Tour go next? We can’t wait to tell you. When we bring the best of Wharton around the globe again, we hope to see you there.

A business journal from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

How ‘Thinking Out of the Shoebox’ Made Stuart Weitzman a Success

April 9, 2024 • 3 min read.

In an episode of ‘Marketing Matters,’ co-host Barbara Kahn spoke with Wharton alum Stuart Weitzman about his storied career in the shoe industry.

The Wharton School always feels like home for Stuart Weitzman, founder and chairman emeritus of his eponymous shoe company that’s a favorite among celebrities. He’s a 1963 graduate of Wharton, and Penn renamed its school of design after him in 2019.

Just before Weitzman retired in 2017, he visited marketing professor Barbara Kahn ’s Consumer Behavior class, where a room full of undergraduates – many wearing his shoes – listened with rapt attention as he told stories from his career.

“I love being here. This is where my touring lecture circuit began,” Weitzman said to Kahn as they chatted during a recent episode of the “ Marketing Matters ” podcast, which Kahn co-hosts with Wharton marketing professor Americus Reed . ( Listen to the podcast or watch the video below.) “I was running the company still, but my daughter gave me good advice: ‘Daddy, figure out how to fill up these 15-hour days when you finally sell this business.’ And it started with you.”

Aside from autographing so many shoes that his pen ran dry that day, Weitzman told the students that success is built on a combination of sound business practices, exquisite design, and product functionality. He also told them never to cut corners, always keep their promises, and live by their values and ethics.

“The impression I was trying to make with these students is that they are going to struggle a little to figure out what they really want to do in life, but that struggle is worth it,” he recalled.

Being ‘Value-driven’

Kahn gave him credit for being “ahead of the curve” in modern branding. Not only did he push buzzworthy marketing ideas, like the red carpet shoe cam , he also refused to sell shoes that were cute but uncomfortable. If testers said they hurt their feet, the designs were modified or scrapped.

“You had your values back then,” Kahn said. “Instead of being either product-driven or customer-driven, you were always value-driven.”

“Everyone says I’m a little obsessed with shoes. I think I’m a lot obsessed with shoes.” — Stuart Weitzman

Weitzman realized early on that his company couldn’t get by on celebrity endorsements alone. They needed to advertise to raise the brand’s profile and compete against other cultish labels like Manolo Blahnik. In their first print ad, they erased the spots on a Dalmatian and stenciled in images of shoes. It won a Clio award, which Weitzman said convinced him to “always think out of the shoebox, pardon the pun.”

“Everyone says I’m a little obsessed with shoes. I think I’m a lot obsessed with shoes, but they’re being polite,” he said.

Prioritizing Creativity

Weitzman sold his company to Coach in 2015 and stepped down as creative director in 2017. He’s been spending most of his retirement on public speaking tours, visiting universities, and connecting with students who hope to follow in his stylish footsteps. He said he’s inspired by the passion, dedication, intelligence, and creativity of the next generation.

“The most successful executives in my company were not business people from business schools…. [They were] creative people,” he said. “We train them to become an executive within their role. I think that helped make Stuart Weitzman an important company in our industry. Without that, we just would have been another shoe company.”

More From Knowledge at Wharton

Chip Bergh, Former President & CEO of Levi Strauss & Co

Emily may, president, co-founder, and lead executive officer of right to be, erica martin, marketing communications manager, ford brand, looking for more insights.

Sign up to stay informed about our latest article releases.

Asking the better questions that unlock new answers to the working world's most complex issues.

Trending topics

C-suite agendas

AI insights

EY podcasts

EY webcasts

Operations leaders

Technology leaders

Marketing and growth leaders

Cybersecurity and privacy leaders

Risk leaders

EY Center for Board Matters

EY helps clients create long-term value for all stakeholders. Enabled by data and technology, our services and solutions provide trust through assurance and help clients transform, grow and operate.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Strategy, transaction and transformation consulting

Technology transformation

Tax function operations

Climate change and sustainability services

EY Ecosystems

Supply chain and operations

EY Partner Ecosystem

Explore Services

Discover how EY insights and services are helping to reframe the future of your industry.

Case studies

Energy and resources

How data analytics can strengthen supply chain performance

13-Jul-2023 Ben Williams

How Takeda harnessed the power of the metaverse for positive human impact

26-Jun-2023 Edwina Fitzmaurice

Banking and Capital Markets

How cutting back infused higher quality in transaction monitoring

11-Jul-2023 Ron V. Giammarco

We bring together extraordinary people, like you, to build a better working world.

Experienced professionals

MBA and advanced-degree students

Student and entry level programs

Contract workers

EY-Parthenon careers

At EY, our purpose is building a better working world. The insights and services we provide help to create long-term value for clients, people and society, and to build trust in the capital markets.

EY is now carbon negative

19-Sep-2022 Carmine Di Sibio

Our commitment to audit quality

13-Nov-2023 Julie A. Boland

No results have been found

Recent Searches

BEPS 2.0: as policies evolve, engagement is key

It remains to be seen whether the US will align its tax law with the OECD/G20’s global BEPS 2.0 rules. MNEs will feel the impact in 2024. Learn more.

How GenAI strategy can transform innovation

Companies considering or investing in a transformative GenAI strategy should tie generative artificial intelligence use cases to revenue, cost and expense. Learn more

Top five private equity trends for 2024

Read about the five key trends private equity firms will emphasize in 2024 as they create value

Select your location

close expand_more

|    About EY-Parthenon    |    EY-Parthenon careers    |   What you can do here   |    What it's like to work here    | How to join

EY-Parthenon Consultant Program recruiting at Wharton School of Business

Review the content below to learn more about our recruitment process on your campus.

Applications now closed

Check back at the start of the next recruiting season to apply for the EY-Parthenon Consultant Program.

Wharton School of Business recruiting

We are excited to have Wharton School of Business be a part of our campus recruiting efforts! We look forward to getting you all the information you need to better understand if a strategy consulting career at EY-Parthenon is the right fit for you!

If you are looking to learn more about EY-Parthenon, including an overview of our work, our culture and our programming, we encourage you to visit our EY-Parthenon careers page for the US by clicking  here .

Below you can find more specific details on the application process, as well as some important information and FAQs.

Application process overview

Applications are currently closed for the EY-Parthenon Consultant Program generalist and specialized tracks (i.e., Software Strategy Group, Deal Technology). At the beginning of the next campus recruiting season, you will find the links to apply below. You will follow the steps necessary to complete the EY-Parthenon application form and upload your resume and official transcript.

Important FAQs: general EY-Parthenon Consultant Program

Where can i learn more about ey-parthenon events on my campus.

Check your career services portal for all dates and locations of upcoming EY-Parthenon information sessions and events on your campus.

Which US offices are hiring? How do I select a location preference?

In the US, EY-Parthenon is currently recruiting for our offices in:

• Los Angeles
• Philadelphia
• San Francisco

(Please note, these locations vary for our specialized tracks, and will be noted as such on the respective job posting.)

In the job posting, you will see the list of cities where EY-Parthenon is hiring. When you apply, you will be able to note the cities that interest you.

Where can I learn about positions outside of the US?

Please note that per the job postings on this page, we are only actively hiring for US locations.

If you are interested in any international EY-Parthenon locations, you will need to apply directly to them by navigating to their country page on this webpage and follow the corresponding application instructions. Hiring processes, needs and timelines will vary by country, and are managed by the respective country. This US recruiting team does not refer candidates to other regional programs.

When and how will I be notified if I receive an interview?

The EY-Parthenon campus recruiting team for your school will notify you of your status, if you are to interview and any further details.

What is the interview process at EY-Parthenon?

Applicants who are selected during the initial screening are invited to interview with EY-Parthenon.

Candidates can expect a mix of behavioral and case-based interviews with multiple EY-Parthenon professionals.

Offer decisions are typically communicated within a week from your interviews.

How does EY-Parthenon support diversity, equity and inclusion?

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are essential to EY-Parthenon’s culture and business. We know that a diversity of perspectives drives success and we’ve worked hard to create an inclusive culture that enables EY-Parthenon people to learn, contribute and succeed.

As such, EY-Parthenon seeks to recruit and develop diverse, high-caliber teams. Our national DEI team helps drive a commitment to recruiting and sponsoring professionals who identify as minorities, women, LGBTQ+ and veterans.

For more information on our organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, including the EY commitment to anti-racism in the US, click here .

Important FAQs: specialized tracks in the EY-Parthenon Consultant Program

What are the specialized tracks in the consultant program and where can i learn more about them.

While most of our team will join through the general Consultant Program, we do have three specialized tracks within the Consultant Program that may better align with your background and/or interests. You can learn more about these tracks below:

• Software Strategy Group >  Learn more
• Deal Technology >  Learn more
• EY-Parthenon also has a track for Life Sciences PhDs within our Consultant Program. Our Life Sciences team engages clients across a diverse set of disciplines to shape business growth, including pharma and biotech, diagnostics, medical devices, life sciences tools, and digital. If you are interested in this specialization, follow the application instructions on this page for the Consultant Program. When you search our job board, as noted in the links on this page, you will find a posting specific to the Life Sciences PhD Consultant position.

How do I learn more about the application process for the specialized tracks in the Consultant Program?

While the application process is largely the same for the specialized tracks, you can review the information below to learn more around the specific skill-sets required, specific locations of our specialized teams, etc., and any other details on the recruiting and interview process:

• For our Life Sciences PhD program, you will follow the same recruiting process as the general Consultant Program on this page. When you search our job board, as noted in the links on this page, you will find a posting specific to the Life Sciences PhD Consultant position.

• Our locations
• Connect with us
• Legal and privacy
• Open Facebook profile
• Open X profile
• Open LinkedIn profile
• Open Youtube profile

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

EY-Parthenon is a brand under which a number of EY member firms across the globe provide strategy consulting services.

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My Portfolio
• Stock Market
• Biden Economy
• Stocks: Most Actives
• Stocks: Gainers
• Stocks: Losers
• Trending Tickers
• World Indices
• US Treasury Bonds
• Top Mutual Funds
• Highest Open Interest
• Highest Implied Volatility
• Stock Comparison
• Advanced Charts
• Currency Converter
• Basic Materials
• Communication Services
• Consumer Cyclical
• Consumer Defensive
• Financial Services
• Industrials
• Real Estate
• Mutual Funds
• Credit Cards
• Balance transfer cards
• Cash-back cards
• Rewards cards
• Travel cards
• Personal Loans
• Student Loans
• Car Insurance
• Options 101
• Good Buy or Goodbye
• Options Pit
• Yahoo Finance Invest
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Yahoo Finance

‘south asian trailblazers’: how a wharton mba is building a media company in between classes.

Simi Shah, Wharton MBA ’25, interviews SEC Director Gubir Grewal for a live podcast event organized by her company, South Asian Trailblazers. Courtesy photo

You’d think starting an MBA at one of the most prestigious MBAs in the world would be enough to hold one’s attention. For the first week at least.

Not so much for Simi Shah. Within a week of arriving in Philadelphia to begin her Wharton MBA, Shah launched the agency arm of her growing media company, South Asian Trailblazers. Trailblazers hosts an influential podcast in which Shan interviews South Asian leaders from all corners of industry such as Priya Singh, chief strategy officer and associate dean of Stanford Medicine; US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal; and Broadway star and actor Nikhil Saboo. The company also hosts popular live events and networking opportunities.

Launch day for Shah’s new agency also happened to be her 26th birthday and the day of her Wharton Convocation.

In between building her company and pursuing her Wharton MBA full-time, Simi Shah is a choreographer for Dance Studio. They just presented their showcase in March. Courtesy photo

“My dad – I’ll never forget it – said that there was something about just being in the Wharton MBA environment that already had my gears turning,” says Shah, MBA ‘25 at The Wharton School.

She hasn’t slowed down. Two weeks ago, she hosted a live podcast interview of Gubir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in New York City. In February, she was invited to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchanges with the National Women’s Hall of Fame. And just recently she choreographed a showcase with Dance Studio with 35 dancers.

In between running her company, she is involved in Wharton Storytellers as well as the Wharton Hockey League. She is also a McNulty Leadership Fellow.

“It’s not an easy balance and often comes at a cost (to my sleep schedule), but I want to highlight that it CAN be done for all future MBA students. And there’s a lot of joy in it,” Shah tells Poets&Quants.

Poets&Quants was able to snag a few minutes of Shah’s very limited supply to talk about being an MBA founder, getting into Wharton, and building Trailblazers in between in all. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about where you grew up and your professional background.

I was born and raised in a suburb of Atlanta. My parents immigrated there from India about 40 years ago now.

We’ve been a very entrepreneurial family. My dad sort of stumbled his way into the hotel business, and so I always had a penchant for entrepreneurship, business, and finance, broadly speaking. I went on to college, decided to study economics with a minor in government because some part of me saw myself going into international affairs or politics.

I spent a lot of my summer internships primarily working in either microfinance or traditional finance. After graduation, went to work as a PE analyst for the Audax Group focused on consumer, industrials, and tech. I left that job after a little under a year because I just kind of knew that late stage private equity wasn’t for me. It was an amazing learning opportunity that has served me very, very well in the broader context of my career, but I just looked five years up the ladder and realized that I wasn’t going to be a late stage investor.

So I pivoted out of that role about a week before the pandemic hit, which obviously wasn’t planned. I was in conversations with a number of companies that actually went on pause, and I went back home to Atlanta, leaving my Boston apartment standing as it was. I just started doing a lot of cold outreach.

I sort of stumbled upon a media startup that was being incubated out of a venture studio in New York. I joined their team as an intern, and then was fortunate enough to be hired full time as their first official employee. That was truly an incredible experience, being on the ground floor of a startup and also being in a space that I’d always been excited about. I think even in straddling that world of economics, government, finance, and International affairs, I had an embedded passion for media, writing, and understanding the world beyond.

I then got recruited to join the team of Indra Nooyi’s, the former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. I had connected with her team sort of through happenstance. On the side of all this, I had been working on my own podcast and platform called South Asian Trailblazers where I interviewed leading South Asians. By way of that, someone on her team reached out and said she was looking for a chief of staff to help spearhead her book launch for My Life in Full. It was one of those phone calls that you can’t say no to. I worked with her various PR, marketing, and publishing teams to help launch the book in the UK, US and India.

Why did you want to pursue an MBA?

Simi Shah on her first day at Wharton. Courtesy photo

I always knew I was gonna go. My dad did his undergraduate degree in India, as did my mom. He got his MBA at Georgia State as a night degree, and I think it was just so life changing for him. He came to this country and emigrated as a nuclear engineer. I think he thought that’s what he was going to do for the rest of his life until he realized that he didn’t like waking up and leaving work and not seeing the sun. I think it was so formative in teaching him how to think about the world of business that, from a very early age, it was just like a given that I would go. I recognize that to be a privilege.

The timing was a bit strange. My sister, who’s 10 years older than me, went straight out of school. She did her JD MBA right away, and so my parents were like, “When are you going?” But I think after doing three jobs in three years, which again wasn’t planned, I felt like I’d cultivated enough range of experience that it was now time to come to school, double down and figure out what my longer term career trajectory looked like.

Did you apply to other schools? Why Wharton?

I applied to Columbia through their 2+2 program. I applied to three or four other schools. For Wharton, it was one of those things where if I was going to go, and if was going to spend the money, time, and resources, I wanted to go to one of the best. From undergrad, I spent a lot of time at Penn and I had a pretty robust network here.

Also, a lot of the work that I continue to do with Trailblazers is in New York City and the proximity from Wharton is so underrated in my opinion.

I also think of Wharton’s emphasis on leadership. I’d had the chance to meet Adam Grant through my work with Indra, and he was such a big proponent of the school and the experience I’d have here. He’s been so right.

Walk us through your application process. What did you do right?

One of the things that I came to appreciate after going through the process is the amount of reflection it requires. I think people view the reflection as a “have to do,” but I was so grateful for what all the applications brought out in the process. They really challenge you to think about who you are, why you’ve made the decisions that you have, and what it’s leading to next.

There is this unfortunate misconception that you need to concretely know what’s happening next. But I think being forced to vocalize and put on paper the driving force behind your decisions is a really important exercise. So many of us are just ushered through the conveyor belt of life. You go to high school, you take the SAT, you apply to college. For many of us who have the privilege, those are table stakes.

Business school is not a thing you have to do. I think many of us are like, “Oh, I might as well throw my hat in the ring.” That’s great, but there should be some compelling reason as to why. I think really taking a step back to understand myself and what has motivated me throughout my life was probably what helped me most in the application process. And certainly in the interviews.

Were there any missteps in the process?

For missteps, there is no formula, I think, in applying to these schools. There’s a lot of consultants and people that you can talk to. I found the most helpful resources often to be students who were at these schools. But again, they have a singular lens into what got them in. There’s no way your story is exactly the same as theirs.

I think just remembering that there is a really fine line between writing what you think they want to hear and writing what is true. I don’t think people understand how quickly people can see through you writing what they want to hear. Those are missteps I’ve made in past application cycles, and certainly something I tried to correct for this time around.

The final thing is that I wrote very different essays for all the schools I applied to. It was interesting to see where I got interviews and what resonated where. That part of it is not very different from undergrad in that there is no one size fits all. Business schools all have very different personalities. Wharton’s application was very concentrated on, “What do you want out of this experience? What can you give to this experience and to this community?” And I think that is really reflected in the leadership ethos here.

Simi Shah and classmates on a trip to Japan. Courtesy photo

Any other advice can you offer people considering an MBA? What resources did you find most helpful?

First, do your research. The best resource available to you is the school’s website: What do they emphasize? What’s their tagline? What are the things that they’re highlighting on the front page? Personally, because there was still a bit of COVID, I didn’t do campus visits. But I have a lot of friends that did and I do think it’s a useful and important exercise.

I read a lot of blogs on sites like Poets&Quants. There’s so many out there that will tell you that Wharton is a school that’s very global leadership focused. HBS is a lot more leadership specific focused. Stanford GSB is very impact focused. Keep those considerations in mind.

There are a lot of packets you can read that have former students’ essays. I think they’re very illustrative when some of the questions can be super broadband. I did speak to a number of consultants, particularly for the interviews, but I didn’t work with any through the whole process.

I used a platform that ran a mock team-based discussion interview for Wharton. It is very difficult to practice for a group interview, but I think it was such a useful exercise to have at least done it once. And they actually use the prompt from that year so you can go in and practice the exact things you’re going to say. I think just getting used to that environment was one of the most helpful things that I did. I also did a lot of mock interviews with friends.

Tell me more about South Asian Trailblazers.

I started Trailblazers in 2020 during the pandemic when I left my job in finance and was figuring out next steps. I started it primarily as a podcast to highlight the stories of leading South Asians across a swath of industries because I felt like everywhere I looked, there were South Asians leading and breaking barriers across so many different spaces. But we had no way of hearing their stories through the lens of identity and certainly not in any sort of aggregated forum.

The other piece of it was I had been very involved in the South Asian community my whole life growing up in the Atlanta area. My parents embedded my sister and I in it a lot through high school and college, and I was involved in leadership of student South Asian organizations. Then I was in this new professional chapter of my life, and I was like, “Okay, how do I retain this connection to my culture, but also do that in a way that feels applicable to the professional context I’m now in?”

Getting to talk to these prominent leaders about how they got to where they were just felt like such a natural segue and felt informative to my own career, even if they weren’t necessarily in the same industry.

Eventually, I sensed that there was a greater hunger to have this community go offline. So we started by hosting our first ever live podcast at the World Trade Center in New York City for the launch of Aparna Shewakramani’s book. She was one of the breakout stars of the Netflix hit show “Indian Matchmaking.” We had like 100 people show up and it was a total blockbuster event for her amazing book. It made me realize that I’m someone who gets a lot of energy from being around people. There’s something special about bringing your community to life and I realized, “Oh, these are the people that might actually be tuning into our podcasts week to week whose faces I never got to see.”

Simi Shah interviews Congresswoman Pramila Jayapl during a live podcast event in June 2023. Courtesy photo

From there, we started to build out our community engagement arm where we started hosting a lot of live events. We just did one in August with the CEO of Novartis in Boston. We did one with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal in Washington DC last June. And we did one with Gurbir Grewal, the director of the SEC Division of Enforcement, in New York just a couple of weeks ago. We also do a lot of dinners and networking mixers to gather South Asian professionals in the various spheres where we have an influence.

Then the third piece that I launched, somewhat serendipitously, when I arrived in Philadelphia to start my time at Wharton was our agency. I realized there was an untapped need for people who want to connect with this amazing South Asian talent but don’t always know where to start. So we launched our agency where we now represent many of the trailblazers in our network for speaking engagements, brand partnerships, and other engagements.

That’s been really special because I think people think media companies need to look one type of way. But this is an integrated platform where we started with a podcast, we started doing events, and now we’re doing an agency. I don’t think people would necessarily think of those three elements together, but it’s been really special to build it.

How many employees does South Asian Trailblazers have?

We work with a team of interns, so I’m the only full time employee. We have a team of about four to five fellows that are working with us at any given time who range from college students to people that are working full time but just want to engage with the community on the side.

What are your aspirations for the company? Do you hope it to be your full time gig after Wharton?

That’s a great question. I think a big part of why I came to Wharton is to give myself the time and space to figure it out.

We live in a world that has always made us think we have to choose. But, everyone in my family is a multi-hyphenate. We are all genuinely incapable of only doing one thing. My sister is lawyer but she’s also a banker. My dad was a hotelier but also did community banking as well as nine thousand other things.

Where I really see my trajectory is somewhere at the intersection of media and business. I see that in continuing to build Trailblazers as a platform and agency. It doesn’t look the same way it did four years ago, and I expect it won’t look the same in another four years, but I absolutely plan to continue building. I think it’s necessary, and I think it’s powerful, and I think it’s been really special to see the impact and community we’ve been able to cultivate.

At the same time, my family has a real estate business based in the southeastern United States, and so I’ll continue to work on that as well. I started my career in finance for a reason; I still have a brain that gets really excited about that world. So, I see myself at the intersection of those two sorts of careers.

What are your goals for Year 2 at Wharton? What are you most excited about?

There’s a couple of things. Like I said, Adam Grant is someone that has had a momentous impact on my decision to come to Wharton. I am going to serve as an MBA mentor for one of his undergraduate classes, which I’m really excited about. I think it’s a really cool opportunity to pay my experiences forward to younger students. I certainly could have used some of that guidance when I was younger.

I’m also working with another professor, negotiations expert Professor Gus Cooney, on launching a negotiations class at a local Philadelphia area prison. It’s another important way we, as MBA students, can give back.

For me, one of the general themes in my life right now is to continue to leverage the skill sets and experiences I’ve had to actually pay them forward to my community. I feel like with Trailblazers, we do that in a lot of ways, but this is a little bit more concrete and specific to my work experience.

DON’T MISS: SHE DIDN’T WANT TO CHOOSE BETWEEN MOTHERHOOD AND A STANFORD MBA — SO SHE DID BOTH AND HEC PARIS PARTNERS WITH LAIDLAW FOUNDATION TO CREATE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR UNDERSERVED WOMEN

The post ‘South Asian Trailblazers’: How A Wharton MBA Is Building A Media Company In Between Classes appeared first on Poets&Quants .

• Youth Program
• Wharton Online

Two Years of Growth. A Lifetime of Learning.

With Wharton’s rigorous yet flexible curriculum, you’ll gain a strong foundation of business knowledge with the freedom to explore new areas of study. Discover new interests and follow your passions through majors, electives, and interdisciplinary programs. Along the way, join a community of classmates who will both inspire and push you forward.

The Wharton MBA curriculum has a unique structure, offering rigor and flexibility.

MBA Career advisors provide individualized guidance at each stage of your job search.

Student Life

A student-driven community that helps build lifelong connections.

Application Deadlines

Wharton mba stories, pre-term: an unforgettable orientation experience, meet the wharton veterans club, wharton welcomes two new majors and concentrations: dei and esgb, building a community for first-generation, low-income students, take a virtual tour of campus.

Visit our locations in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Beijing from the comfort of home.

UPCOMING ADMISSIONS EVENTS

Virtual visit day: wharton inspire, student-led wharton mba overview webinar, top business schools discuss: from africa to the mba, clear admit events: mba application overview, top mbas: london.

Advertisement

Supported by

In Pennsylvania, Biden slams Trump as he calls for a fairer tax code.

In Scranton, his hometown, the president discussed tax policy in terms of economic fairness, arguing that Donald Trump’s tax cuts benefited billionaires.

• Share full article

By Nicholas Nehamas

Reporting from Scranton, Pa.

President Biden kicked off a three-day tour of Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state, with a speech on Tuesday that focused on taxes and aimed to contrast his policies with those of former President Donald J. Trump.

In Scranton, his hometown, Mr. Biden spoke about the tax code in the frame of economic fairness, arguing that Mr. Trump’s tax cuts had benefited billionaires while his own agenda had helped working- and middle-class families.

“A fair tax code is how we invest in the things that make this country strong,” he said. “Health care, education, defense and so much more.”

Speaking about lessons of hard work and fairness he said he had learned growing up in Scranton, Mr. Biden suggested that Mr. Trump had learned different lessons. “He learned the best way to get rich is to inherit it,” he said.

It was standard election-year fare, but the backdrop to Mr. Biden’s campaign swing could not be more unusual. In an unprecedented trial, Mr. Trump is spending most of this week, and much of the coming month or two, in a Manhattan courtroom facing criminal charges. Democrats hope that the contrast of Mr. Biden campaigning and carrying out the duties of a president while Mr. Trump’s lawyers plead his innocence will highlight the choice voters face in November.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, did not answer when asked if Mr. Biden was watching the Trump trial or being briefed on it.

“His focus is on the American people,” she said during a briefing with reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Scranton.

On Tuesday, the day after Tax Day, Mr. Biden promoted his plans for changes to the tax code, including expanding the child tax credit, instituting a tax credit for first-time home buyers and making permanent tax credits for those who buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

He often asks his audiences on the campaign trail: “Does anybody think the tax code is fair?”

Pennsylvania is a key target for both the Biden and Trump campaigns. Mr. Biden’s easiest path to re-election involves him winning Pennsylvania, as well as Michigan and Wisconsin, the so-called blue wall states. In 2020, he narrowly defeated Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania by about 80,000 votes. Polling shows that another tight race is likely in the state, the nation’s most populous battleground.

Mr. Trump held a major rally in eastern Pennsylvania on Saturday. Both he and Mr. Biden, who spent much of his childhood in Scranton, have sought to highlight their ties to the state. “I went to school here, right?” Mr. Trump, a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, reminded his audience. “I went to school in Pennsylvania. I love Pennsylvania.”

While Mr. Biden’s campaign has invested heavily in opening offices and hiring staff members around the state, Pennsylvania Democrats have urged him to broaden his travel beyond Philadelphia, a major hub of Democratic votes that is also logistically convenient for him to visit. They say it is imperative that Mr. Biden campaign in western Pennsylvania, as well as swing areas like Erie County, which Mr. Biden flipped in 2020.

This week, Mr. Biden is doing just that. After leaving Scranton, he will visit Pittsburgh on Wednesday to give an official address at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers. Unions are a major constituency for Democrats, and Mr. Biden has signaled opposition to an effort by a Japanese company to acquire U.S. Steel, a move also opposed by the steelworkers union, which has endorsed him.

On Thursday, he will campaign in Philadelphia.

Although the economy is Mr. Biden’s focus during his tour, Democrats are also trying to keep the issue of abortion front and center, seeking to tie Mr. Trump directly to bans on the procedure in many states, most recently in Arizona .

Ahead of Mr. Trump’s visit to Pennsylvania over the weekend, the Democratic National Committee unveiled billboards in the eastern part of the state.

“Because of Trump, over 20 states have extreme abortion bans,” the billboards said in English and Spanish. “If he gets his way, Pennsylvania could be next.”

Abortion is legal in the state until 24 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions after that and, with a Democratic governor in office, restrictions seem highly unlikely. Democrats have argued that Mr. Trump would sign a federal ban on abortion if he were re-elected. Mr. Trump said last week that he would not, reversing a position he held during his term in the White House.

Michael Gold contributed reporting from Schnecksville, Pa.

Nicholas Nehamas is a Times political reporter covering the re-election campaign of President Biden. More about Nicholas Nehamas

Our Coverage of the 2024 Election

Presidential Race

The start of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan  drew intense security, smothering media coverage and loud demonstrations to a dingy courthouse that will be the unlikely center of American politics for the next six weeks.

President Biden will kick off a three-day tour of Pennsylvania , a crucial battleground state, with a speech that focuses on taxes and aims to contrast his policies with those of Trump.

Trump leaned heavily on major Republican donors  in March as he sought to close the financial gap separating him from Biden, new federal filings showed.

Vice-Presidential Calculations: As Trump sifts through potential running mates, he has peppered some advisers and associates with a direct question: Which Republican could best help him raise money ?

Embracing the Jan. 6 Rioters:  Trump initially disavowed the attack on the Capitol, but he is now making it a centerpiece of his campaign .

Mobilizing the Left: Amid the war in Gaza, the pro-Palestinian movement has grown into a powerful, if disjointed, political force in the United States. Democrats are feeling the pressure .

On a Collision Course:  As president, Trump never trusted the intelligence community. His antipathy has only grown since he left office, with potentially serious implications should he return to power .

• Youth Program
• Wharton Online

Looking Back, Progressing Forward

2020 has been a year unlike any other. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted every sector of our lives and brought about massive professional, academic, and personal challenges. But one thing has stayed the same throughout this unusual year — the Wharton community remains stronger than ever.

Amid the moments of uncertainty, the resiliency of the School community has revealed countless silver linings. Wharton students, faculty, staff, and alumni created innovative new ways of teaching, adapted to remote learning, and fought for racial equality and social justice. Through it all our community created togetherness, while physically apart.

As we welcome in a new year, let’s take a look back at how the Wharton School spent 2020.

From left to right: Frank Cai, WG’21 conducts a virtual apartment tour for newly admitted MBA students in Wharton HQ ; undergrads take part in a virtual “escape the room” challenge; Dean Erika James moderates the second Beyond Business discussion on race and corporate power; MBA staff welcome the Class of 2023 during Virtual Pre-Term; Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal, WG’10 joins a lunch chat about leading in difficult times; an applicant gets the call they’ve been waiting for from MBA Admissions.

Passing the Baton

On July 1st, Dean Erika James officially succeeded Dean Geoffrey Garrett as the 17th Dean of the Wharton School — becoming the first woman and person of color to hold the position.

As Wharton’s Dean from July 2014, Geoff advanced Wharton’s reputation as one of the world’s leading business schools and charted a path to position the School as a hub for cutting-edge, interdisciplinary education.

He established pioneering new initiatives that expanded the School’s global presence in fields beyond Wharton’s traditional scope and broadened the positioning in the marketplace.

During his tenure, he expanded the faculty in both size and breadth, enhancing both the research agenda and the opportunities for students to engage in forward-looking topics both inside and outside the classroom. Continuing reading »

Though her first six months as dean have been outside the norm for a typical transition of leadership, Dean James has already made her mark on Wharton by guiding the School through the most turbulent days of the Covid-19 pandemic. She has placed a special focus on transparent and consistent communication about school-wide developments, tapping into her expertise in crisis management and communication.

This September, Dean James kicked off a LinkedIn Live series called “Beyond Business” to hold discussions with industry leaders about racial equality within organizations.

Rewind: On her first day on the job, Dean Erika James sat down with Robin Roberts for an interview on Good Morning America. Watch »

My Virtual Veterinarian Wins Startup Challenge

This year’s Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship Startup Challenge was held virtually for the first time, in May. Read about the winning concept , My Virtual Veterinarian, and its founder, Felicity Johnson, WG’20.

Artificial Intelligence Joins Analytics at Wharton

Wharton AI for Business will inspire cutting edge teaching and research in artificial intelligence and is made possible by a $5 million gift from husband and wife Tao Zhang WG’02 and Selina Chin WG’02.

New Opportunities in Quantitative Finance

An $8 million gift from Dr. Bruce I. Jacobs G’79, GRW’86 established a new professorship and scholar funds in support of quantitative finance research and education at Wharton.

In July, the Wharton School marked a new era as Penn Wharton Entrepreneurship became Venture Lab , the nexus for all startup activity across Penn.

Students stay connected while apart.

Undergrad students competed with peers in a virtual Amazing Cohort Race , delved into hobbies in shared interest groups, developed a new platform to find new extracurriculars, and connected with alumni through career exploration events.

Wharton’s graduate programs, MBA Admissions, EMBA Admissions, Student Life, and External Affairs collaborated on a new initiative called the Wharton Alumni Welcome (WAW) program to virtually connect MBA students all around the world to alumni in their own cities. The MBA for Executives program created their own version of this initiative called “Squads.”

In March, students in the 44th class of Wharton’s MBA for Executives Program on both coasts launched a fundraising campaign called The First Wave Movement to accept and distribute PPE donations to hospitals in desperate of PPE. The class launched the initiative with the hope of raising $15,000; they’ve since raised more than $200,000, delivered more than 300,000 masks, and have served nearly 60 hospitals across 15 states across the US.

Graduation 2020

Proving that nothing can stop their #whartonpride, the class of 2020 invented new ways to commemorate graduation day. here are a few of our favorites., since we couldn’t gather together for traditional ceremonies, the class of 2020 found new ways to celebrate from home. our grads decorated driveways, donned digital caps, and held virtual watch parties proving that nothing can stop their wharton pride., wharton responds, faced with unprecedented challenges and global events, students and alumni answered the call..

United for Change: As the rallying cry for racial justice reverberated across the nation, members of the Wharton MBA and undergrad students turned to each other in search of courage, compassion, and action. Read the story »

Insights & Conversations: Faculty like Prof. Dean Knox emphasized the power of data in combating racial biases in policing , while Dean Erika James’s Beyond Business lecture series started by diving deep on race with a range of Black leaders. While the African American MBA Association (AAMBAA) partnered with their classmates to take a stand against racism , undergrads also opened safe spaces for difficult conversations , assisted by groups like the Wharton Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Group (WEDIG), Black Wharton Undergraduate Association (BWUA), Wharton Asia Exchange (WAX), Wharton Alliance , and Wharton Latino .

All In: From mask-sewing to delivery services, the Wharton community jumped into the fight against the pandemic. Students created a free job-search website for unemployed Americans, launched an online platform to connect volunteers with organizations in need, helped alleviate the PPE shortage , and much more . Alumni joined forces around the globe to assist frontline workers, develop a vaccine, and digitize healthcare.

Real-Time Analysis: “ Epidemics, Natural Disasters, and Geopolitics: Managing Global Business and Financial Uncertainty ,” united faculty across Schools at Penn to teach more than 2,500 students about dealing with similar crises.

Getting Out the Vote: The Wharton and Penn communities mobilized voters to increase voter turnout, register new voters, and help students find polling locations. Nearly 130 undergraduate students joined the“Motivote” competition with Penn’s three other undergraduate schools. 

Providing Policy Insight: Throughout the presidential election, the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) gave valuable context to the economic impact of candidates’ platforms through reports, a guide to the 2020 Presidential Candidates’ Policy Proposals, and a post-election briefing on what to expect in 2021.

From left to right: The colors of autumn line Locust Walk; a tribute to frontline workers lights up the sky over Franklin Field; health care workers at Thomas Jefferson Hospital receive new shoes from alumni startup Clove; a familiar reminder; Ben Berman, WG’21 makes a “pizza drop” from his apartment window.

Faculty Snapshots

A renowned expert on grit and self-control, Professor Angela Duckworth became the first recipient of the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professorship. Funded by Nancy Yang, W’92, the Professorship supports a dual appointment at the Wharton School and Penn Arts & Sciences’ Department of Psychology.

Professor Duckworth, who joined the Penn faculty in 2006,  is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit that uses psychological science to help children thrive. She is faculty co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics. Read more »

What does it really take to succeed as an entrepreneur? Wharton professor Ethan Mollick brings hard data to dispel the most pervasive startup myths in The Unicorn’s Shadow: Combating the Dangerous Myths that Hold Back Startups, Founders, and Investors .

In The Leader’s Brain: Enhance Your Leadership, Build Stronger Teams, Make Better Decisions, and Inspire Greater Innovation with Neuroscience , neuroscientist Michael L. Platt reveals how the latest insights from brain science can transform how we think about leadership, team-building, decision-making, innovation, marketing, and more.

Wharton professors Cade Massey and Adi Wyner are leading the new Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative, an expansion of the School’s sports business activities through Analytics at Wharton.

The marketing department welcomed Cait Lamberton, Penn’s first Alberto I. Duran President’s Distinguished Professor. The professorship was endowed by Alberto I. Duran, WG’93 and Inma Duran.

Wharton Online launched Artificial Intelligence for Business, an online program that Kartik Hosanagar, Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions, will also adapt for MBA students (and possibly undergrads) next year.

Bright Ideas

Global youth program goes virtual.

The Global Youth Program pivoted to offer High School students a remote experience featuring new virtual courses with the same topics and rigor of prior summers. The programs made the most of the virtual environment by prioritizing community via Gen Z programming and fun challenges and events.

Wharton Executive Education Offered on Wharton Live

Executive Education transitioned 22 open-enrollment programs to a live virtual format this Fall, leveraging the advantages of remote learning while providing the interactive and challenging learning experience of the in-person curriculum.

Wharton Pivots

Here are some of the lessons learned remote experience as Wharton staff and faculty reimagined conferences, annual campus events, student clubs, competitions, and more during the pandemic.

Wharton Social Impact Initiative Publishes Project Sage 3.0

Project Sage 3.0 is the latest report researched and published by WSII and consultancy Catalyst at Large which features the field of gender lens investing — investing to generate financial returns and a positive impact on women.

Wharton Undergrad Awarded Fulbright Scholarship

Congrats to Aiden Reiter, C’20, W’20, one of 16 Penn students and alumni offered Fulbright awards for the 2020–2021 academic year. Aiden was awarded a Fulbright to teach English in Laos, where he hopes to start a Model UN club for students, teach English to business owners, and work with local nongovernmental organizations.

Risk Center Launches Business, Climate, and Environment Lab

The new Business Climate and Environment Lab brings together cutting-edge research, thought leadership, and a range of stakeholders to design policies related to climate change, renewable energy, air and water pollution, waste disposal, biodiversity, and deforestation.

Colan Wang awarded Prism Fellowship

Colan Wang WG’22 is the first recipient of the Prism Fellowship , awarded to an outstanding LGBTQIA+ MBA student. In a personal essay , Jeffrey Schoenfeld WG’84 reflected on his career as an out business leader and what led him to found this landmark fellowship.

Alumnus Yuri Milner Establishes Friends of Israel Fund

Yuri Milner, WG’92, and wife Julia donated a $10 million gift to create a full-tuition MBA fellowship for Israeli students.

Penn Wharton Budget Model Analyses

PWBM released several timely, non-partisan analyses this year, including breakdowns of President-elect Biden’s policy platform , President Trump’s proposed tax cut , Biden’s healthcare proposals , and school reopening trade-offs during COVID.

Wharton Launches New Quantitative Finance Major

The MBA quantitative finance major will include new cross-disciplinary content from accounting, statistics, and operations, information and decisions and will be bolstered by Dr. Bruce I. Jacobs Professorship in Quantitative Finance and the new Dr. Bruce I. Jacobs Scholars in Quantitative Finance. 

Jay H. Baker Retailing Center Hosts First-Ever Ideathon

200 undergraduates pitched bold business ideas to major retailer Ralph Lauren Corporation during the “ Ideathon .” Shark Tank Star Daymond John and 40 leading mentors from the industry offered inspiration and guidance throughout the competition.

Wharton Global Youth Program Hosts Investment Competition

Nearly 100 students attended the first-ever virtual Wharton High School Investment Competition Global Finale , with two teams, East Capital K and Over the Moon Investments, finishing in first place.

Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai Reflects on His Career

Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai WG’02 reflects on his career, leading one of the world’s most powerful companies, and the future of tech with Wharton Magazine .

Alumni Share Their Secrets of Success

Ten alumni founders , including Allbirds CEO Joey Swillinger WG’10, share their secrets of success and lessons learned along their entrepreneurial journeys.

“Doors of wisdom are never shut.”

— Benjamin Franklin, 1755