H.S. seniors study business at Wharton

You don't necessarily have to be a Penn student to attend classes at the Wharton School -- at least, not during the summer. This summer Wharton is giving a handful of high school seniors an inside peak into the business world through two summer programs geared toward rising seniors interested in business careers. Leadership in the Business World, a brand new summer program developed in part by the Wharton Undergraduate Advisory Board, drew 42 students from across the nation to campus earlier this week for a four-week program. Developed last year by a committee of Wharton students and staff, and based upon an idea created by WUAB years ago, the highly competitive LBW program aims to introduce accomplished seniors to topics concerning leadership in the business world for the 21st century. "[WUAB] had the view that we weren't always reaching the brightest high school students that would actually benefit from and enjoy a business education," said Wharton Undergraduate Dean Richard Herring. Previously, Wharton had hosted only one summer program for high school students, the Leadership, Education and Development program, which also kicked off this week. LEAD, a nation-wide summer program -- established at Wharton in 1980 -- for top under-represented minority high school seniors, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. According to Harold Haskins, LEAD's operations director for the Wharton location, the program's participants are selected for their strength in both academics and leadership roles. "Students are culled from the ranks of the top two percent of under-represented minority high school students nationwide," Haskins said in a statement released last week. "They are the students who have demonstrated leadership ability, a record of academic achievement and a genuine curiosity for exploring careers in business." Wharton officials said that many of the program's alumni go on to pursue successful careers in the business field and hope that a similar success will be found in the new LBW program. LBW Director Anita Gelburd said that, in general, these kinds of summer programs help students with "the decision-making process," adding that "even if the students don't go into business, [the program will] aid students in making good decisions for themselves." Herring said that the LBW students, who arrived on campus this past weekend, represent a "broad range of backgrounds and talents" and have demonstrated "a lot of enthusiasm" for the program. The month-long program includes classes in Marketing, Computers, Entrepreneurship and Accounting and trips to downtown Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C. LBW students are being housed at Bryn Mawr College under the supervision of Julian Krinsky Summer Camps, but taking classes at Wharton's Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Gelburd said that by leaving the recreational and residential aspects of the session to Julian Krinsky, the program's coordinators can instead focus on the academic portion of the program. "We're really in the business of running academic programs," Gelburd said. "We decided to outsource [residential arrangements] to people who do this for a living." Gelburd said that while the students are taking classes taught by Wharton professors, they are not standard undergraduate courses but, instead, are "catered specifically to these students and designed for them." The program costs $4,000 per participant, and Gelburd said that all students who applied for financial aid received the amount of aid they requested.

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