The Wharton Graduate Association (WGA) is having a big month at Wharton with three key events taking place: the formation of the WGA Cluster Councils, the WGA Club Fair, and the WGA Red and Blue Ball!
First, we are so excited to see the new cluster communities starting to take shape as the incoming Class of 2015 gets settled and the cluster council applications come in. There are four councils who are responsible for serving the 210 student members. This provides the first opportunity for our first-year students to get involved in the broader Wharton community. The 25 elected students range from President and Vice President to Info Systems, Academics, Social, and International representatives. They are in charge of building the cluster community throughout the year and instituting major programs across the School. The cluster council plays a vital role in ensuring the success of the community by hosting events and communicating important messages throughout the year.
As we start to see individuals apply for one of the most vital roles – the Cluster President role – we are amazed at the spectrum of candidates. There is no “right” or “cookie cutter” profile for the type of person that steps up into this role: some President candidates are extroverted; some are introverted; some are international; some are LGBT; some are women; some are from non-profit; some are from finance; and some are from consulting. This range of candidates celebrates the diversity of the student body at Wharton and gives the voting cluster a broad range of excellent candidates to choose from. We are excited to see how the elections turn out, and we look forward to giving those elected the support and autonomy to build amazing cluster cultures!
Last Thursday we held our annual WGA Club Fair! The Club Fair is held in combination with the first Pub (the WGA sponsored Thursday happy hour that Wharton students attend each week). At the event, over 90 clubs are expected to assemble, including professional clubs (ie. the Finance Club, Social Impact Club, etc.), athletic clubs (ie. Soccer Club, Running Club, Hockey Club, etc.), social clubs (ie. Brewmasters club, Food club, etc.), international clubs (ie. China club, Europa club, etc.), and community service clubs (ie. Wharton International Volunteer Club, Rebuilding Philadelphia, etc.). We look forward to seeing students start to narrow down how they want to spend the two most exciting years of their lives by visiting with all of the Club booths.
Last Thursday also marked the first WGA sponsored social event of the year, the WGA Red and Blue Ball. For this event, the WGA rents out a large boat on the Delaware, asks people to dress up in their red or blue outfit to represent the University of Pennsylvania, and leads students in celebrating the beginning of a new year. We had around 800 people come to the Red and Blue Ball this year!
As the WGA continues to take shape this month, we encourage you to follow us on our Facebook page and check back with us on November 12th to see how things are going when the WGA will be featured in a live chat session with Admissions team. We look forward to virtually seeing you there!
Annie King, WG’14
Wharton Graduate Association Vice President