It may seem like all Wharton students are starting their own companies before they graduate, but it turns out their community is not as large as it appears.
Emily Cieri of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs said she is looking to expand awareness of entrepreneurship opportunities beyond the 300 to 350 students who are currently thinking about launching their own businesses.
Though a business-owning craze is sweeping the campus - and especially at Wharton, whose students Cieri estimates to make up 60 to 65 percent of aspiring entrepreneurs - students do not generally feel like they have to start a business without a diploma.
Wharton senior Derek Zoch, who is in the early stages of manufacturing the "QuickerKicker," his PennVention-winning creation that simulates game situations for kicker, says there is "no pressure."
PennVention is an annual Weiss Tech House-sponsored competition that judges student inventions.
"This is all just for me," Zoch said. "I don't really compare myself to anybody here; I just do things for myself."
Beyond Wharton, that no-pressure sentiment may vary.
Engineering senior Richard Fong, who attended the Venture-a-Guess kickoff, said he still "feels like a minority" who has to "compete with Wharton students to create things."
Nearly 100 students are currently competing in Wharton's new "Venture a Guess" competition, where students answer weekly quiz questions about entrepreneurship to win prizes like Southwest Airlines plane tickets and Flyers tickets.
About 50 students showed up at the "Venture a Guess" kickoff last month to chat with other student entrepreneurs, like Wharton senior Jason Gurwin, who is creating a social networking site to connect college athletic recruiters with high-school athletes.
"I think you have to be a self-starter, but once you have the idea, there's a great network here," said Gurwin of the resources for entrepreneurs at Penn.
And even though most students say they don't feel the pressure to manufacture their own product just yet, the prospect of doing so is definitely on their minds.
"Something has happened in the last year and a half, and entrepreneurship is suddenly sexy at Penn," said Wharton senior Peter Handy, creator of BoxMyDorm, a company that moves and stores students' belongings over the summer.
"Everyone is talking about thinking outside of the box and getting off Wall Street," Handy added.
Handy will be graduating one semester early in order to work full-time on his fledgling company before taking another job in New York.
And Handy isn't the only one who thinks entrepreneurship is bringing sexy back.
Wharton sophomore Ashley Gunn, for example, started her own nonprofit organization to help underprivileged families buy homes before even coming to Penn.
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