Dates
Summer session: June 9-20, 2025
Location
Philadelphia, USA
Application Deadlines
For information regarding our submission deadlines, please visit our application information page.
Program Fee
Winter program (one week):
- $3,999 (includes housing and meals)
Summer program (two weeks):
- $7,599 (includes housing and meals)
Contact
For more information, please contact: AcademyPrograms@wharton.upenn.edu
Overview
This program focuses on the potential for private enterprises to contribute solutions to society’s biggest challenges. Specifically, we consider how entrepreneurs can innovate in ways that benefit society and protect the natural environment while also creating strong financial returns. The program applies to aspiring founders who want to do more than generate private wealth through venture creation, aspiring impact investors, or anyone who wants to build a deeper understanding of how venture can be a force for good in the world.
Topics include:
- Customer centricity and idea generation
- Impact frameworks and logic models
- Basic impact and financial assessments
- Business models for purposeful entrepreneurship
- Customer discovery and validation
- Leveraging your mission to acquire resources
- Tensions, tradeoffs, and mission drift
- Impact investing vs. traditional venture capital
- How to pitch a great idea
The Social Entrepreneurship program uses an innovative and experiential curriculum developed by Wharton Professor and impact investor Tyler Wry. The program highlights opportunities and challenges that arise from pursuing impact through venture and asks participants to think creatively about how to leverage human and financial capital in ways that promote positive social change.
Details
Academic classes for Social Entrepreneurship are held Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with evenings free (except for group events).
A typical day looks like:
- 7:00-9:00 – Breakfast
- 9:00-12:00- Topics Lecture or Guest Speaker (with break)
- 12:00-1:00- Lunch
- 1:00-4:00- Group Work and Debrief (with break)
- 4:00-5:00 – Office Hours
You can expect to:
- Earn a Wharton Academy badge through our one-week program or a Wharton Academy certificate by completing our two-week program
- Join visiting undergraduates from around the world to build a network of emerging business professionals
- Engage in a 35-hour in-person learning program in Wharton classrooms
- Enjoy housing & meals at the University of Pennsylvania
Eligibility
Qualifications for Participation
- Current Undergraduate student or recent college graduate
- Highest English proficiency – TOEFL 100+ IELTS-Band 7 or higher. If TOEFL or IELTS scores are unavailable, applicants may submit Duolingo, PSAT, SAT, or ACT scores as an alternate. The minimum Duolingo score required is 130.
- Strong quantitative skills
Admission
Admission to the Wharton Academy Social Entrepreneurship Program is selective. Selections are based on a record of academic excellence and a genuine interest in how entrepreneurs can innovate to benefit society, protect the environment, and generate strong financial returns.
Please note that participation does not guarantee admission into Penn.
Instructional Team
Instructor: Tyler Wry
Tyler Wry is an Entrepreneurship Professor at the Wharton School, where he also directs the Wharton Impact Investing Research Lab and is the Academic Advisor for Social Entrepreneurship at Venture Lab. Tyler’s research focuses on understanding how hybrid organizations—and particularly social enterprises— emerge, attract resources, and positively affect society. His research is published in top academic journals and has been featured in American Banker, the Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Knowledge@Wharton, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among others. He serves on the Editorial Boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, the Academy of Management Journal, Organizations and Environment, and Organization Science. Tyler has received the Wharton Teaching Excellence Award each year since 2018. Outside of academia, Tyler is an advisor to the Global Impact Investors Network, and is a founding partner at IF Ventures, a pre-seed stage venture fund that supports young founders who are building scalable solutions to society’s biggest problems.