Wharton tries program to connect newcomers

The Wharton School is reaching out. Starting next fall, the school will administer a program to connect Wharton freshmen with the Wharton School and all other areas of the University. The Connects program, which will begin next fall, will help incoming Wharton freshmen define their roles as Wharton students, University students and members of the Philadelphia and world communities. The program will try to explain each of these roles and help students understand the relationship between them. Groups of 50 freshman, led by second-year Masters of Business Administration students, will participate in a number of activities and projects in order to accomplish these goals. Stewart Friedman, director of academic affairs for Wharton's undergraduate division, said that in the past, freshmen have arrived on campus and taken virtually no classes in Wharton. "Many have never even been in Steinberg-Dietrich," said Friedman. "This program will help them come to understand what being a student in the Wharton school is all about." The program will also help students determine their relationship to the rest of the University. "While we want students to be aware that they are members of the Wharton school, it is clearly in our interest to ensure that their University of Pennsylvania identity is also reinforced during the first year," Friedman said. Vice Dean Janice Bellace conceived the program and Friedman is now in charge as the program moves into the final planning stages. "We hope this will be an exciting innovation in the first-year experience," Friedman said. "We are going to deal with a lot of important issues . . . and at the same time help [first-year students] to develop skills in teamwork, negotiation, communitcation and other aspects of personal development." "The basic theme of the program is to help the students become socialized," he said. The groups, or cohorts as Friedman calls them, will make students aware of Wharton's goals and values. The 50-member groups will probably undertake projects as a whole and also split up into smaller groups that will "aim to reach out beyond the community of Wharton," Friedman said. "Those communities include the other parts of the University, the College primarily, but also the other schools, and the community at large," he said. The details of the group projects and activities are still in the developmental stages, but Friedman said he hopes many ideas will "bubble up from the students." In general, Friedman said some projects may be social activities that help students recognize the different schools. Others may try to involve students with the people of West Philadelphia or various industries in the Delaware Valley. More specifically, the Wharton students could meet with other University students to discuss how their curriculums converge. With the Engineering School, for instance, students may help determine new course ideas that involve concepts from both schools. Friedman emphasized the importance of the MBA students as leaders of the cohorts. He said that they will act as mentors for the freshmen and give those freshmen a good opportunity to see what lies ahead of them. Friedman also said that Wharton peer advising would be an integral part of the Connects program. Friedman has been working closely with the advising program on its design and delivery. Wharton freshman Shannon Fullerton said she thinks the program is a great idea and that it is definitely necessary. "I have three classes in Steinberg-Dietrich, but that's pretty abnormal," said Fullerton. "Most people only have one or two." Fullerton also said she does not think of herself as a Wharton student yet. "If someone were to ask me where I went to school, I'd say Penn," she said. "But some upperclassmen I know, if you asked them, they would say Wharton." She added that she thinks there are so many "Welcome to Penn" programs, but that there are no "Welcome to Wharton" programs. Fullerton said she thinks that Wharton freshmen could get a better sense of themselves as Wharton students if Connects were introduced during the summer and implemented during the first semester. "If they had something like this, I'd feel like I was doing something more than just taking my requirements -- like I was doing what I came here to do," Fullerton said. Although many aspects of the program are still in the planning stages, the Connects program will begin in the fall for the class of 1996.

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