Wharton adds two new study abroad options

Wharton undergraduate students who want to study business in Australia or the United Kingdom are in luck. The Wharton School faculty recently approved the addition of two new study abroad exchanges, making a total of 13 different locations. These new exchanges include the University of New South Wales at Sydney in Australia and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. "Wharton students have always participated in approved Penn Abroad Programs,"said Wharton's Associate Director for Undergraduate Academic Advising Anita Henderson, who oversees Wharton study abroad. But the majority of these abroad programs were aimed at the liberal arts side of Penn. So Wharton created specific exchange programs that are Wharton-approved and provide students with both unrestricted electives and the required "business breadth" credit. Traditionally, the Wharton abroad program has offered exchanges all over the world, from Buenos Aires and Madrid to Rotterdam and Leuven. However, after this year's stakeholder survey, students expressed a desire for more English-speaking exchange programs. This was "the impetus for it," Henderson said of the two new program additions, adding that the Wharton faculty wanted to "grow these [abroad] programs and get a strong English" background for the trips. "It's great that they are expanding different opportunities because Wharton students must have a good understanding of global business," Wharton freshman Erica Garvey said. Many Wharton students expressed interest in studying business abroad -- in both English and foreign languages. "I want to go to Madrid to study in a Spanish-speaking country," Wharton and Engineering freshman Alexis Schmitt said. "Anything they can do to expand the program is great since they have so many fewer opportunities than the College." So far, there are a total of seven different places where students can go abroad to study in the English language. Wharton senior Amanda Krawitz studied at the University of New South Wales-Sydney in the spring of her junior year before it was added to the Wharton program -- however, she received credit for history and science in the College. "I really encourage people to go abroad," Krawitz said, "because I think it helps you maintain the perspective that you tend to lose in the 'Penn bubble.'" She is currently a member of the Wharton Dean's Undergraduate Advisory Board and pushed the need for Wharton English-speaking study abroad programs. "We emphasize the demand for a program in Australia," Krawitz said. "And while in Australia, I corresponded with [Wharton Undergraduate Vice Dean Thomas Dunfee] regarding the viability of a program at UNSW. "It is really exciting that Wharton students will be able to go to Australia and still be able to receive Wharton credit on the new program, thus reducing the pressure of going abroad and having to catch up senior year." In order to receive this credit from Wharton and be a part of the study abroad program, students must achieve a minimum 3.0 GPA for two semesters prior to their semester abroad. Henderson added, though, that "qualifications will ultimately have to do with the demand" of the individual programs, and that the requirements are currently based on the number of general requirements the students have already fulfilled. As global interaction with the business world increases, Krawitz said that Wharton's abroad program hopes to enable students to have the "academic freedom to study abroad in the country of their choice."

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