Wild Wild Wharton: Q1

Well, despite numerous warnings from second-years, I've over committed myself within days of starting Quarter 1. In an effort to remember all my commitments, I'll list them below:

Co-Chair of Wharton's Business Plan Competition - I was selected with another first-year to act as Co-Chair of the business plan competition held at Penn. We subsequently went through piles of applications and picked an extraordinary student management committee to help us put on the competition. This has required between 5 and 10 hrs per week of planning, meetings, and presentations. I actually competed in a half dozen competitions as an undergraduate and was able to walk away with some decent prize money which helped me expand my business, so I'm a real believer in learning and education that happens in these competitions. The picture below is of one of the info sessions we conducted. My co-chair is presenting here to about 120 students.

SBDC Consultant - I was one of 20 MBA's chosen to be a consultant for Wharton's Small Business Development Center. This is an extremely competitive program, so I feel honored that I was selected to work with them. We provide strategic and management consulting to local companies within the Retail and Restaurants vertical. I am working with a team of another MBA and a couple Wharton undergrads. My projects currently include advising an executive team with 100+ national franchises which is targeting improved employee retention and training, and assisting a restaurateur focused on increasing traffic and profitability. I've been spending 10-12 hrs per week on these cases.

Co-Founder of Wharton's Founder's Club - Along with a couple other entrepreneurs, I have started a new club for MBA's who were entrepreneurs prior to attending Wharton. We meet weekly as a group and have a theme assigned to each meeting. This week, for instance, the theme is e-commerce and I will be doing a 15-20 minute presentation on my business, presenting a case study where we discuss a problem my business faced and how people would attack the problem. We also listen to a handful of elevator pitches by other founders whose businesses were in the e-commerce industry. We also do mentoring for students wanting to start businesses (both undergrads and MBA's).

Entrepreneurship Elective/New Business - I took an elective class this quarter (on top of the Core and Lauder classes) and I'm glad I did it! The class is OPIM 651, Innovation, Problem Solving and Design. In summary, the class of 40 comes up with 400 business ideas in a specific industry (10 ideas per person). We then rate the ideas throughout the semester and slowly eliminate ideas until the best business ideas filter to the top. I am working on an idea with a great team and two of us are actually moving forward with the business and actually launching it in the next few months ... details to come.

Youth Counselor - through my church organization, I work with some inner-city youth a couple times a week. It has been a fairly large time commitment, but I'm glad I'm doing it. I spend the majority of this time working with two 14-year old twin boys and have really grown close to them. Last night I took them to the Franklin Institute to see the Body World exhibit and participate in a science presentation.

Father/Husband - of course I have a few extra demands on my time that most MBA students don't have ... I have a small family with two beautiful little girls. Although I don't see them as often as I did in the past few years, it is the highlight of my day seeing them in the mornings and walking my little girl to school.

I'm going to include some pictures I took around campus yesterday. I feel fortunate to be attending school at such a fine and beautiful university. Go Quakers!

The Quadrangle - University of Pennsylvania

Locust Walk

Class gift of '92 (which century though?)

1892 ... Sounds old, but Penn was 152 yrs old by then.

Benjamin Franklin - founder of UPenn, the nation's first university.

Ivy League! Since June 7, 1873, every class graduating from the University of Pennsylvania has placed an Ivy Day stone somewhere on the university campus and a new sprig of ivy is planted.