New Initiatives at Wharton: Campaign Dollars in Action
With the remarkable support of alumni and friends, Wharton is continuing to expand its global presence with leading edge programs.
The Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab
The Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab will draw on the creative expertise of faculty leaders and professionals to innovate, study and experiment with technology to enhance learning throughout all of the School’s degree and non-degree programs.
William and Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation
As the umbrella organization for all of Wharton’s technology management initiatives, the Center will support the research and publishing activities of Wharton faculty members, create an endowed professorship and support a student-run conference.
Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center
The Center trains students for careers in real estate and promotes the results of its research to professional and policy-makers in the industry.
Jon M. Huntsman International Studies and Business Program (IS&B Program)
The first of its kind in the U.S., the Huntsman IS&B program integrates international studies, foreign language and business education at the undergraduate level.
Wharton’s Global Footprint: The Impact of Endowment
Dean Patrick Harker talks about the importance of Wharton’s endowment.
Wharton Faculty
At the core of every great academic institution is its faculty. “Wharton’s endowment allows us to stay competitive with our academic peers in terms of faculty talent and salary, and it provides research funds enabling our faculty to develop new ideas,” Harker explains. Forward-looking endowed research programs help support experimentation with new teaching methods and the development of new teaching technologies. “This is what makes us unique from non-research-based institutions,” says Harker. “Our faculty bring the latest ideas to the classroom even before they are written in textbooks.”
Wharton Students
Bringing a diverse and talented student body to engage with a world-class faculty creates a highly charged educational environment. “We bring the brightest students and faculty together and let them mix it up. The combination sparks totally new concepts for business – management, business models, new business itself,” Harker continues. The endowment enables the School to give financial aid to students: to provide the best and the brightest with access to the Wharton experience. “The crucial point,” Harker stresses, “is that, for students to have access to the finest management and leadership faculty, they need to get here. This means that Wharton’s priority, and a priority for the Campaign for Sustained Leadership, must be to support the endowment.”
Wharton Programs
New and innovative programs complete the Wharton picture. “Too often, education is viewed as a consumer good,” says Harker, “but that is not the brand of education we create here. Wharton is a true learning community where everybody learns from each other. The programs we create and the ways we educate our students are truly the best in the world. We need the capital to keep investing in new learning and technology initiatives.” Recent alumni gifts to the School’s endowment have supported the development of academic programs such as the Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program and Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab. Harker explains that “programs like these allow Wharton to research and develop our own product, to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s markets. The core of the School is creating leaders. This is our emerging global footprint.”
Investing in the Future
Virginia Hepner
Virginia Hepner, W’79, executive vice president of Wachovia Bank and manager of the bank’s U.S. Corporate Client Group, recently established the Irving N. Hepner Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship, named in honor of Hepner’s late father, provides support for undergraduates who otherwise would be unable to finance a Penn education.
Hepner came to Wharton from Kansas City, Missouri in 1975 after hearing that Wharton was the best business school in the country. “It’s what informed people told me,” she notes. Hepner also chose Wharton because, as part of the University of Pennsylvania, it provided her with numerous avenues of learning and a balanced education.
The Hepner “family ethos of civic responsibility” and giving back was instilled in Hepner by her parents. Hepner’s father, Irving, an entrepreneur who managed four banks and founded two, set an example for her with his work ethic and personal commitment to his community.
Because of her positive experience at Wharton and the doors her education has opened, Hepner decided to give something back to the School. Grateful for her father’s strong support when she decided to attend a top-notch business school, Hepner endowed an undergraduate scholarship in his honor: “It was a way for me to show my appreciation and respect for him. I am fortunate enough to be in a situation where I can give to the School.”
Hepner shares her time as well as her money. She acts as a liaison between Wharton and Wachovia to strengthen the partnership between the two. This October, Hepner hosted a CEO Breakfast at Wachovia’s headquarters in Atlanta. Dean Patrick Harker updated industry executives on the state of the School and the challenges facing business schools today. Hepner also gives her time, money and expertise to the Atlanta Women’s Foundation and her children’s school. The Hepner “family ethos” will impact the Wharton community, and the community at large, for generations to come.
David Marshall
Mixing the personal and professional is common among Wharton donors. David and Sandra Marshall, W’61 and CW’63, respectively, also funded an undergraduate scholarship to the School. The Sandra G. and David G. Marshall Scholarship is earmarked for undergraduate students with a concentration in real estate who otherwise would be unable to meet the expenses of a Wharton education.
Grateful for the opportunities Wharton provided, Marshall wanted to reciprocate in some way: “I was very fortunate; Penn and the Wharton School opened a lot of doors for me, and for my family, as well.” As chairman and CEO of Amerimar Realty, a Philadelphia-based real estate firm that regularly recruits Wharton graduates, Marshall knows firsthand that providing scholarship funding also benefits the business community. With the caliber of student Wharton attracts, Marshall stresses that “students with all the talent in the world shouldn’t be handicapped by a lack of money. We’re trying to help level that playing field.”
In addition to his scholarship, Marshall shares his experience and knowledge with Wharton’s Undergraduate Executive Board, the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center Advisory Board, and also chairs Wharton’s Real Estate Research Committee. With these commitments, as with his many other philanthropic activities, Marshall notes that although financial support is vital, being actively involved also allows him “to know that the contributions are being used wisely.”
Eric and Erica Schwartz
Family history was also important to Eric and Erica Schwartz, W’84, WG’85 and C’84, respectively, in their decision to create an undergraduate scholarship at the Wharton School. Schwartz and his brother Mitchell, M’85, were the first in their family to attend college, so supporting a scholarship took on an additional meaning for Eric. The Schwartz Family Endowed Scholarship, established in 2000, supports first-generation college students who would otherwise be unable to finance a Wharton education.
Schwartz notes that his personal and professional worlds were positively shaped by his Wharton experience. In addition to having the great fortune of meeting Erica while an undergraduate at Penn, Schwartz attributes a great deal of his professional success to Wharton: “Without Wharton, a million things that have gone well for me would have happened differently.” The Schwartzes hope to afford students the opportunities they had while at Penn and to help Wharton work toward its goal of diversifying the student body. As a business leader and recruiter on Wall Street, Eric, a general partner with Goldman Sachs, knows the benefits of bringing a variety of personalities and life experiences to the table. He also understands that he benefited from similar interactions while at Wharton. According to the Schwartzes, they are “making good on that debt of gratitude.”
PepsiCo
Corporate foundations benefit from the drive and diversity of Wharton’s student population. Previously named one of Fortune magazine’s “50 best companies for minorities,” PepsiCo Inc., through the PepsiCo Foundation, is committed to supporting the schools and students that are the foundation for this reputation. The PepsiCo Foundation Endowed Scholarship provides renewable funding for minority students attending Wharton. According to Jacqueline Millan, manager for corporate contributions at PepsiCo, “we try to help the schools where we recruit.” In addition, Millan states that the Wharton scholarship also serves as a tribute to Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, C’56, H’99, trustee emeritus of the University and retired chairman of the board at PepsiCo. The PepsiCo Foundation acknowledges the way Vagelos led by example: “This scholarship recognizes his leadership and his dedication to educational and philanthropic pursuits,” notes Millan. “My wife and I love to help students attain the same kind of education and background by providing scholarship assistance to them,” explains Vagelos. Millan points out that “Pepsi’s matching program is a unique one, and a great way for employees to make gifts. PepsiCo matches any gift to a charitable or non-profit and will double the match if the employee does volunteer work too.” Just as Vagelos led by example, so too does Pepsi, encouraging its employees – a number of whom are Wharton alumni – to support the institutions that impact their lives.
Revolutionizing Business Education
The Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab
As technology advances faster than most people can track, the Wharton School leads the pack in seeking new ways to harness it. The newly established Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab is one such fulcrum for innovation, technology and teaching.
The Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab was established with a $10-million gift from Alfred P. West, Jr., WG’66, chairman and chief executive officer of SEI Investments. It draws on the creative expertise of faculty leaders and professionals to create and experiment with technology to enhance learning throughout the School. Spearheading a first-rate group of advisors to assist in this effort are co-chairs Andrew B. Abel, Robert Morris Professor of Banking, and Robert W. Holthausen, Nomura Securities Company Professor. “We are extremely excited about the potential of the Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab,” explains Holthausen. “Teaching and learning are what we do at Wharton everyday. Improving upon these techniques is vital to us as a community of teachers, scholars, and learners.” West’s gift emphasizes his commitment to the School’s ever-present climate of innovation. “One of Wharton’s greatest strengths is its intellectual leadership,” he notes, “and I am confident that the Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab will make important contributions to the emerging area of technology enhanced education.”
Gerry McCartney, Wharton’s associate dean and chief information officer and head of Wharton Computing and Technology (WCIT) says, “the key principle of the Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab is to find new ways of using technology to aid learning. Thus far, people have used technology to replicate existing models of learning. We are trying to create pedagogical methods that are unique to technology – distinct from existing methods of teaching and learning – just as the Socratic dialogue is unique from the lecture.” The concept for creating innovative learning aids is simple. Faculty throughout the School are invited to submit proposals to be considered for funding through the Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab; often, proposals are based upon teaching methodologies already being used in the classroom. “In order to foster experimentation, we place no artificial bounds on faculty proposals,” Abel states, “however, a project must be feasible, hold substantial promise for enhancing learning or teaching, and be potentially useful to a large number of students.”
Two such projects were put into classroom use in the Spring 2001 semester. The first, “Future View” was developed by Peter Fader, associate professor of marketing. “Future View” is an online market research simulation that allows a company or individual to research an entirely new product before bringing it to market. Future View is an interactive program that can generate meaningful data for these products. The second project, known as “OTIS,” was designed by Michael Gibbons, chairperson of the Finance Department and I.W. Burnham II Professor of Investment Banking. “OTIS” is designed to re-create a bond-trading infrastructure for students’ use throughout an entire semester. McCartney explains that “you may not be a good bond trader just because you can play the game, but if you can’t play the game, you won’t be a good bond trader.”
More pioneering programs will be brought to life for the Fall 2001 semester. The Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab is supporting other new projects including some that teach competitive reactions to pricing on airline routes, highlight the effects of auctions type on buyer and seller behavior, and facilitate an understanding of consumer behavior with respect to product characteristics. Alfred West Jr. Learning Lab faculty and staff are optimistic that current and future programs will be adopted by other learning institutions, “and that proceeds will help fund future projects at Wharton,” Holthausen notes. McCartney continues, “If other people want to use these programs, then we will regard the Learning Lab as successful.”
Catalyst for the Future: The Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program
Wharton continues to expand its global presence with Wharton’s Entrepreneurial Programs (WEP) helping to blaze the trail. Wharton began this trend in 1973, when it became the first school to develop a fully integrated program of entrepreneurial studies.
Under the WEP umbrella, the Goergen Entrepreneurial Management Program is one of the largest entrepreneurial programs in the world and serves as the locus for Wharton’s entrepreneurial courses. Robert Goergen, WG’62, founder and chairman of Blyth Industries, gave $10-million, his name, and his time to entrepreneurial education at Wharton: “Entrepreneurs create employment, and I like things that are cross-functional, so supporting this program seemed like an ideal return on an investment,” Goergen says.
Today, according to Emily Gohn Cieri, managing director of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, WEP offers more than twenty courses each year and is truly interdisciplinary. The program offers Wharton MBAs a major and undergraduates a concentration. The Goergen Program is also home to several innovative programs that complement the entrepreneurial coursework. One new initiative, the Entrepreneur in Residence Program, pairs students with entrepreneurs; students get practical advice on how to start a business. Another offshoot of the Goergen Program is the Technology Entrepreneurship Internship (TEI). For seven weeks during the summer, MBA students meet in San Francisco and Philadelphia to share information about their internships in entrepreneurial-minded firms. Cieri notes that students “analyze the practices of their own companies and bring this insight to class. This creates a knowledge exchange between the students and their respective firms.”
“The linkage between theory and practice is key to the Goergen Program as we strive to integrate research, teaching, and outreach,” states Raffi Amit, academic director for the Goergen Program and Goergen Professor of Entrepreneurial Management. Amit points out that “students need to learn lessons from alumni like Robert Goergen and other entrepreneurial leaders. They need practical information to move forward with a business concept and to understand that even seemingly simple ideas can take off when executed right.”
Bob Goergen
While enrolled at the University of Rochester, Bob Goergen, WG’62, planned to become a nuclear physicist. He later changed his mind in favor of a career in business. As Goergen recalls, “with no family role models, I was unsure how to accomplish this.”
After graduation, Goergen decided that the Wharton School would be the place to gain such knowledge. He applied and was awarded a fellowship: “This was a major turning point in my life. I came from a humble background, and this fellowship enabled my graduate education.” While pursuing a finance and marketing major at Wharton, Goergen received the knowledge and guidance that helped him become a successful entrepreneur. Goergen notes, “I have always been entrepreneurial, and it was clear to me that entrepreneurs can create jobs and success for their communities. That’s why, when it came time to give something back to Wharton, I decided to get behind the School’s entrepreneurial programs.” While Goergen is committed to many other causes, he stresses that his educational philanthropy is perhaps the most important. “I’ve learned that education makes all the difference. It is the differentiating factor in peoples’ lives.”
Strength in the Numbers: The Wharton Fund Looks Ahead
As June closed, so did the Wharton Fund cycle for fiscal year 2001. The Fund, which supports student aid, faculty research, and new technologies, had an ambitious $6-million goal this year. Competition between the reunion classes was intense with the classes with graduation years ending in ‘1’ and ‘6’ raising close to a million dollars and an average participation rate of almost 20%.
As the Wharton Fund ramps up to raise $7.1 million in 2002, while striving for a participation rate of 30%, it will need support from all alumni and friends – and an especially big push from reunion classes with graduation years ending in ‘2’ and ‘7.’ With Alumni Reunion Weekend 2002 still seven months away, these classes have plenty of time to show other classes how it’s done. For more information, please contact the Wharton Fund at 1-800-400-2948.
Huntsman Hall: Facts at a Glance
Huntsman Hall will soon be completed thanks to the generosity of the alumni, corporations, and friends, and their support of the Campaign for Sustained Leadership. As competition between business schools intensifies, and as new technologies evolve and global opportunities arise, it is imperative that we equip ourselves to remain the leading innovator and creator in business education – to anticipate change coming before it arrives. Huntsman Hall’s successful completion and utilization is crucial to extending Wharton’s leadership position.
When Huntsman Hall is completed, it will contain:
- 2 study lounges
- 2 social lounges
- 4 teaching labs
- 48 classrooms
- 57 group study rooms
- 20,000 square feet of Red Sandstone
- 21,400 Cubic years of concrete- more than enough to fill 4 Olympic-sized swimming pools
- 30,000 square feet of Jet Mist Granite
- 600,000 custom color bricks of which 198, 000 are custom made shapes
Construction Update
- 400 laborers working daily during the peak months of construction
- The steel skeletal structure is complete
- The copper roofing on the Locust Walks side of the building is being added;
- The exterior brick has been placed on the Locust Walk and Plaza sides;
- The sandstone and brick is set in the Forum;
- The elevators and escalators have been installed
