Expand Your Business Knowledge in Just One Morning
Date
June 26, 2025
Overview
No matter what field you’re passionate about, business plays a role in its success. Whether designing the next great app, conducting groundbreaking research, breaking into fashion design, or pursuing a health care career, understanding business fundamentals can give you a competitive edge. In today’s world, every profession benefits from skills like strategic thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving.
During the Wharton Academy Half-Day Experience, current and recent college undergrads will learn to define business more broadly while also going deep on engaging themes like entrepreneurship and the value of leveraging AI, enriched by Wharton School insight and the opportunity to put innovation into action.
After the program, participants will receive a digital badge to document their learning.
Registration Instructions
- Go to the Wharton Global Forum website and select ‘Register for Global Forum San Francisco’.
- Select ‘Register for Global Forum San Francisco’
- Select ‘Register Now’
- Select ‘Continue Without Login’
- Registration Type, select ‘Wharton Academy Applicant’
- Complete fields, select ‘Next’
- At this time you can add a guest or move on with registration by selecting ‘Next’
- Select ‘Half-Day College Undergraduate Experience: Entrepreneurship ad AI’ (for just the program) OR ‘Wharton Academy Half-Day College Undergraduate Experience + Thursday Evening Reception’ (for both the program and opening reception)
- Select ‘Next’ at the bottom of the page
- Select your payment method and hit ‘Submit’
Who We Hope To Meet
Wharton Academy is for business, liberal arts and STEM undergraduates, as well as recent college grads seeking foundational business knowledge and practical skills to enhance their academic and career paths. The optimal participant age range is 18-25.
It is important to note that Wharton Academy is not available to students currently enrolled at Wharton as undergraduates. Additionally, Wharton Academy is not intended for individuals who graduated from their undergraduate institution more than three years ago and have been in the workforce during that time. Such individuals should consider Wharton Executive Education to advance their careers.
Program Agenda
8:00-9:00 Registration
9:00-9:15 Welcome
9:15-10:30 Perils and Promises of Generative AI: Hamsa Bastani
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Sparking Innovative Thinking: Serguei Netessine
12:00-12:15 Wrap-up; Program Concludes
12:15-1:15 Networking Lunch
Location
Wharton San Francisco, 6th Floor, 2 Harrison St., San Francisco, CA 94105
Cost
$100 (add the Welcome Reception at The Ritz-Carlton to their order for a discounted rate of $75.)
Faculty Bios
Hamsa Bastani is an Associate Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on developing novel machine learning algorithms for data-driven decision making, with applications to health care operations, social good, and revenue management. Her work has received several recognitions, including the Wagner Prize for Excellence in Practice (2021), the Pierskalla Award for the best paper in health care (2016, 2019, 2021), the Behavioral OM Best Paper Award (2021), as well as first place in the George Nicholson and MSOM student paper competitions (2016). She previously completed her PhD at Stanford University and spent a year as a Herman Goldstine postdoctoral fellow at IBM Research.
Serguei Netessine is Senior Vice Dean for Innovation and Global Initiatives and Professor in the Operations, Information, and Decisions department at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has lived and worked in Russia, USA, France and Singapore. Prof. Netessine received BS/MS degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology and, after working for Motorola and Lucent Technologies, he also received MS/PhD degrees in Operations Management from the University of Rochester. His current research focuses on business model innovation and operational excellence. He regularly blogs about innovation on http://www.renaissanceinnovator.com and HBR Network.