Make a difference. Your client is facing tough challenges and exciting opportunities on the path to greater social impact. What will you advise?
Join a small team of Penn and Wharton students to help a leading impact investor, start-up entrepreneur, or cutting-edge researcher tackle their toughest challenges and scale their impact.
Your WISE project will not only help your client grow their impact. It will help you grow your knowledge and your skills in research, consulting, and social impact.
WISE Fellows have worked with clients including Kate Spade, Hanover Direct, Kimbal Musk, FastFWD, iNTENT Ventures, and more.
WISE is true experiential learning. Deepen the knowledge you’ve gained in the classroom as you go into the field to help your real-world client answer their most pressing questions.
WISE is cross-disciplinary. WISE Fellows come from every college and corner of the University and include undergraduate students, master’s students, and doctoral students, too.
As with all Wharton Social Impact work, one key question drives this Fellowship: How can business be a driving force for a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable economy?
Our Fellows have helped clients develop solutions for a range of problems, from neighborhood safety in Philadelphia to impact investing gaps in Uganda.
WISE Fellows are selected through a competitive process for the opportunity to work collaboratively with cross-disciplinary teams.
Participation in the WISE Fellowship and receiving the financial award is contingent upon the following:
- Successful completion of the project scope
- Participation in Fellowship programming
- Completion of the end-of-semester survey for each semester participating in the Fellowship
- One written prompt at any point of the program on any social impact topic, to be potentially published on our website
“The Fellowship gave me an opportunity to apply my coursework and past consulting experiences in a real-life experience. I gained exposure to the challenges associated with for-profit social enterprises, and the importance of a supportive community in delivering true impact.”
–Margaret Fletcher WG ’19 WISE Fellow
“The research fellows that I have helped advise over the past year have been fantastic and I am delighted with the progress that has been made on each of their urban analytics projects. I have no doubt that the continuation of these projects will result in several academic publications as well as substantive contributions to our knowledge about the urban environment in Philadelphia.”
–Shane Jensen, Associate Professor of Statistics and WISE client for Urban Analytics Project
WISE Fellows and clients are selected by the Wharton Social Impact Initiative team. Late applications will not be accepted, nor will supplemental materials sent separately from the formal application form.
To be sure you see all official program announcements from WSII, sign up for our student opportunities list using your Penn email.
Questions? Contact Yuri Seung, Program Manager.