High school students love a good passion project – and often, what begins in the classroom launches into the business world. This month’s Future of the Business World podcast guest is poised to explore the market for her IB school project during her time in Wharton Global Youth’s Essentials of Entrepreneurship program this summer. Valentina Mariuzza, a high school student from Italy who studies in Barcelona, Spain, created a line of five supplemental gummies with vitamins and minerals to address specific areas of health and wellness for teenagers. In this conversation with Wharton Global Yo ..read more

On Episode 45 of Wharton Global Youth’s Future of the Business World podcast, tea brand innovator Victoria Fang Gao, says: “Buying a brand is like opening a book; only a good story can keep the readers coming back and back again.” We agree that the topic of brand in business – with its power to communicate identity, purpose and ethos about a company’s products and services – has an intriguing allure in the world of marketing. With that in mind, we set out to explore some of Wharton’s latest research around brands and marketing. We discovered some fascinating insights to share with our Global ..read more

This month’s Future of the Business World podcast takes us to the mountains of Yunnan, China, where high school student Victoria Fung Gao – who is headed to Wharton’s Leadership in the Business World program in July — has spent many summers exploring and discovering the mysteries of pu’er tea. Feeling the connection to a tradition that is in her blood, Victoria (pictured above filling her basket with “the magic leaf”) has a deep commitment to building awareness about the origins and practices of the pu’er tea industry, while also helping to lift tea farmers out of poverty by forming a long ..read more

Few financial decisions are more daunting and potentially debilitating than taking out student loans to pay for college, which is one of the first times that most high school students are faced with a serious money-management choice – and it’s a biggie. Why? It can leave students with a heavy debt burden once they graduate from college. “Kids are 17 years old, having made almost no financial decisions in their lives, and here’s this enormous financial decision to make: borrowing tens of thousands of dollars when they have never borrowed anything and having to deal with all the different nuts ..read more

This month’s podcast guest may be familiar to some of our Wharton Global High School Investment Competition fans. Mojmír Zálešák and his team from Novy PORG high school in Prague, Czech Republic, took third place in last year’s Global Finale, becoming one of the first teams from Europe to ever place in the annual competition. As we prepare for our 2024 Learning Day and Global Finale this week on April 19 and 20, we welcomed the opportunity to talk to Mojmír, not only about his past experiences in the competition, but also what has happened in the year since we last saw him on Wharton’s Phil ..read more

High school students are passionate about financial education. The demand for our Wharton Global Youth on-campus Essentials of Finance program prompted us to create a new online program for high school students this summer that we are calling Financial Decision Making Students’ passion extends to spreading that financial knowledge. Our team often receives pitches from potential Future of the Business World podcast guests about teens’ efforts to improve  youth financial skills and fight economic inequality across the globe. Take, for instance, Isaac H., a high school student from rural In ..read more

What can you expect as an employee of the future? Science. Companies are using data and analysis for recruiting, compensation and performance evaluation because they believe it leads to better decisions about the people they hire and manage. Adam Grant, a professor and organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said that he first saw this field of People Analytics unfolding at Google, where the company brought together a team of traditional human resource professionals, consultants, engineers and academics like him who studied organizational behavior ..read more

This month’s Future of the Business World podcast will get you thinking about the deep connections between food and culture. Massachusetts high school junior Noah Sheldon is the founder of Inclusive Eats, a nonprofit that helps stock local food pantries with staples that people who are food-insecure in his diverse community would find in their home countries. This mission is a true extension of Noah’s passions, including his own Brazilian heritage and cuisine, and his love for entrepreneurship, which he explored during Wharton Global Youth’s Essentials of Entrepreneurship program.  Be ..read more

As you ponder the future workplace, what kind of manager do you hope to be? The answer lies in understanding what it means to think like a manager. During our Wharton Global Youth summer programs, Dr. Lori Rosenkopf, Wharton professor of management and vice dean of entrepreneurship, delivered a cross-program lecture to some 300 high school students learning with us on campus. She asked the group a simple question: What business role do you envision having someday? CEO? Top-level manager? Middle manager? Not a manager at all? While much of the room clamored to the CEO corner, there were a few ..read more

In a recent conversation with Wharton Global Youth about business ethics, the Wharton School’s Amy Sepinwall said she had observed today’s youth approaching business as a force for good, a way to make the world better. As you begin to think critically about how and where you want to use your business acumen and skills to influence change, here are a few Wharton-informed issues at the intersection of business and ethics – where influencers in all areas of organizations are navigating the balance between profit-driven goals and what is best and just for society. Boardroom diversity. Promoting ..read more