- What kind of Social Impact curriculum is offered to Wharton students?
- What does a typical social impact-focused student major in?
- What are career resources for those who want to enter social impact jobs?
- How engaged are Wharton's student body and faculty in social responsibility?
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What kind of Social Impact curriculum is offered to Wharton students?
Wharton is committed to serving students who are pursuing careers in the public and nonprofit sectors, as well as students more generally interested in pursuing social responsibility and impact in business environments. Over 30 course offerings tie traditional business concepts to social impact management. In addition to a course on ethics and social responsibility in the core curriculum, elective courses include topics such as social entrepreneurship, microfinance, community reinvestment, environmental sustainability, emerging economies, and urban fiscal policy. In addition, students are able to combine their business education with more focused public and nonprofit sector interests by taking up to six classes from top-ranked Penn graduate programs including the Fels Institute of Government, School of Social Policy and Practice, School of Education, Law School, and Department of City and Regional Planning. These programs cover nonprofit and public management, strategic planning in the social sector, fundraising, change creation in mission environments, program evaluation, public finance, community planning, and more.
Aligning with Wharton’s strong emphasis on experiential learning, social impact classes often have an out-of-classroom element that allows students to apply their learning in the business world. The Global Consulting Practicum is a full-semester class in which students consult to clients around the world, including nonprofit or government organizations. Fels Institute programs partner students with local nonprofits in order to obtain a first-hand study of the organization’s governance, strategic planning, resource development, resource management, marketing, communications and evaluation. Through Field Application Projects, students team up with faculty to solve business problems of organizations in their area of interest.
Some popular social impact classes Wharton students have taken include:
Urban Fiscal Policy (Wharton)
This course examines the financing of governments in the urban economy. Topics to be covered include the causes and consequences of the urban fiscal crisis, the design of optimal tax and spending policies for local governments, funding of public infrastructures and the workings of the municipal bond market, privatization of government services, and public financial systems for emerging economies. Applications include analyses of recent fiscal crises, local services and taxes as important determinants of real estate prices, the infrastructure crisis, financing and the provision of public education, and fiscal constitutions for new democracies using South Africa as an example.
Entrepreneurship and Social Wealth Creation (Wharton)
The thesis of this elective half-semester course is that many social problems, if engaged entrepreneurially, create opportunities for launching businesses that simultaneously generate profits and alleviate the social problem. This approach generates social wealth as well as entrepreneurial wealth. The course is distinguished from public sector initiatives to address social problems, and also from “social entrepreneurship” programs where social wealth creation is a by-product rather than the target of the entrepreneurial effort. Students are expected to begin the course with already conceived ideas for entrepreneurial solutions to social problems. The course encourages projects promoting community debt, healthcare, education, and environmental sustainability.
Microfinance (Wharton)
This course aims to provide a basic understanding of microfinance and equip students with knowledge and tools that are transferable to a career or a volunteer leadership role in microfinance or international development. The course will begin with an introduction to microfinance and an overview of lending methodologies, products, and performance standards. It will also provide a thorough understanding of the role of capital markets in microfinance and give students a real-time understanding of issues faced by microfinance institutions in different countries. Meetings will include discussion, lecture, case studies, guest speakers, and a simulation exercise. Outside of class, students will be expected to work on a field study project with an organization in the microfinance field.
Strategic Planning and Resource Development for Public and Nonprofit Organizations (School of Social Policy and Practice)
Resilient organizations engage in a continuous process of self-review and refocusing. Referred to as "strategic planning," this process requires the active participation of a broad range of agency "stakeholders" who, in their work together, seek to realign the organization's goals, structures, and programs to make them more responsive to the changing needs of their service populations. Building on the content of foundation practice courses, this course strengthens the student's capacity to engage in strategic planning and resource development with nonprofit organizations. The importance of organizational flexibility, innovation, and the creation of public-private partnerships is emphasized throughout the course.
Human Resources Management for Nonprofit and Government Organizations (Fels)
This course, taught by the Chief Human Resources Officer for Pennsylvania Hospital, introduces students to the broad range of strategic and tactical processes and issues involved in managing a workforce. The course addresses issues common to all sectors (for-profit, nonprofit and public), including strategic performance goal-setting, workforce planning, recruitment and hiring, compensation, performance management and talent development, as well as special topics applicable to particular sectors (e.g. public employee due process rights, collective bargaining agreements, the role of volunteers) among other issues critical to effective human resource management. -
What does a typical social impact-focused student major in?
There are several ways to establish a strong social impact focus during your time at Wharton. For those interested in government and the public sector or international development work, Business and Public Policy is a fitting major. Students pursuing nonprofit management have the option of creating an individualized major that incorporates classes from across business disciplines and well as other Penn graduate schools. For other interests, there are courses addressing social impact issues offered in ever department at Wharton, from Real Estate to Operations to Finance. Roughly 100 students in every graduating class craft an individualized major that best suits their interests. Many students also find value in developing core competencies in conventional business classes and select a traditional major while complementing their non-major coursework with social impact classes of their interest.
In addition, Wharton has partnered with the School of Social Policy and Practice to offer the dual degree with the Nonprofit Leadership Masters Program. Students have the option to apply to this program before or after entering Wharton. For a full list of classes offered by the Nonprofit Leadership Program, please see http://www.npl.upenn.edu/index.html.
Click here to learn more about academics. -
What are career resources for those who want to enter social impact jobs?
Wharton has a reputation for exceptional career management resources, and there is no exception when it comes to social impact interests.
Dedicated career advisor While other career tracks may share the same career advisor, Wharton has dedicated an advisor solely to the social impact interests. This advisor understands the nonprofit and public sectors, as well as socially responsible companies. She can help students find the opportunities they are looking for and shape past experiences to reflect relevant skills for people who come from seemingly unrelated backgrounds.
Social Impact Job Listing Weekly Email Wharton students have access to the most well-stocked list serves with new social impact jobs surfacing every week for both summer and full time.
Expansive Alumni Network Wharton’s global alumni network includes hundreds of alumni in careers directly related to social impact. Through our alumni informational portal, students are able to gain insightful information about socially responsible careers and develop contacts that will help them identify opportunities throughout their careers.
Loan Forgiveness and SPIF Wharton has a loan forgiveness program to support students that choose to go into the nonprofit sector upon graduation.
The Summer Public Internship Fund encourages and supports first-year students who wish to pursue careers in areas that serve the public good by supplementing their summer salaries. The fund, financed primarily by fellow students pledging a percentage of their summer salaries, represents an important commitment by the Wharton community to those students who work in the public interest.
On-Campus Recruiting Wharton has an ever growing list of socially responsible companies, government agencies, and nonprofits that participate in on-campus recruiting. -
How engaged are Wharton's student body and faculty in social responsibility?
Extremely. Over 50% of Wharton students are involved in social impact activities, whether it be through classes, clubs, or volunteer events. For example, the Social Impact Management Conference is among the most popular conferences hosted at Wharton and social impact clubs such as Wharton Social Impact, the International Development Club, Wharton International Volunteers Program, and Wharton Community Consultants are among the largest student clubs. Students and faculty demonstrate their interest in social impact issues across a variety of activities and areas, from environmental issues to renewable energy to international development.
Student Opportunities Wharton houses a diverse array of opportunities to become involved with the community. Whether it be consulting for local nonprofits, helping define and execute the strategy of organizations in developing countries, teaching children about business, building homes, or simply learning about social impact in the business environment, Wharton offers an experience for everyone in a diverse student body. For more information about the specific clubs and activities available, please see http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/leadership/volunteer/index.cfm. In addition to these volunteer clubs, there is also the social impact professional club, Wharton Social Impact, and the Nonprofit Board Leadership program. Wharton Social Impact educates students on the cross section between business and social responsibility and connects students to career opportunities. NPBL places students on the boards of nonprofits, offering first hand exposure to the management of nonprofits and providing training sessions that educate students about the role, significance, structure, and impact of nonprofit boards.
Click here to learn more about social impact clubs at Wharton.
Faculty Involvement Over 30 members of Wharton faculty from a wide range of departments are involved in social impact research. Their studies range from the role of business in social development, to developing business in India, to social wealth creation via entrepreneurial philanthropy.
Zicklin Center of Business Ethics The Zicklin Center houses much of the research on the public and nonprofit sectors, focusing largely on international development, and corporate social responsibility. This center has partnered with both the United Nations and the World Bank to pool resources and expertise and develop new ideas about global development issues. It also supports student research projects in international development and social entrepreneurship. To see recent collaboration efforts, as well as to find recent publications from the center, please see http://www.zicklincenter.org/index.htm.
Social Impact Conference Wharton Social Impact Conference connects students and local organization with social impact interest with world-renown speakers and socially responsible companies, government agencies, and nonprofits. Last year’s conference, titled “Solutions to Social Problems Incident to Our Civilization”, drew over 350 attendees. Click here to go to last year’s conference website.
