Alexandra Curtu, WH ’26, Iowa City, IA
This summer I was able to work for the Wharton Global Youth Program as a Finance Teaching Assistant (TA) in Philadelphia. Over the course of nine weeks, I worked with over 300 of some of the brightest and most curious high school students from across the globe. The Wharton Global Youth Program utilizes the robust opportunities and resources of the Wharton School to inspire high schoolers to explore business fields across finance, entrepreneurship, and leadership. As a TA in the Finance branch of the program, I supported students in their learning of both personal and corporate finance ranging from concepts in fixed income, investing, capital structure, valuation models, and more.
While the rigorous academic learning I helped my students experience was significant, the non-academic skills were just as important. Every two weeks our program would get a new batch of students, excited and ready to learn finance so they could go home to build up their stock portfolios and brag to their friends about attending Wharton. Once here, many students were surprised how we emphasized intangible skills—like communication, teamwork, and public speaking—in our teaching as much as tangible skills—like creating a discounted cash flow model or calculating Net Present Value. My role as a TA was to help my students understand that going into the field of business means not only being intelligent and well-researched but also being able to eloquently and confidently convey that intelligence and preparation to others.
I also built relationships with my students and served not only as a TA but also as a mentor. Outside of the classroom, I worked with them to flush out their passions as they prepared to write college applications in hopes of attending Wharton or other prestigious schools as a full-time undergraduate. Watching my students grow their confidence about their academic and personal intelligence was, simply put, awesome. I saw massive improvements in every batch of students we had from their first 3-minute presentation in the beginning of the program to the challenging 10-minute presentation on the final day. Seeing my students become tight-knit friends with each other after spending hours working on a tough finance problem in Excel or practicing their presentations was exciting. Through Wharton Global Youth and my mentorship, my students were able to build a network of other high-achieving students to look up to and gain support from with each other. They also left the program with a wealth of knowledge about finance that will benefit them personally and professionally for the foreseeable future.
Today’s high school students will be tomorrow’s business leaders. Getting the chance to work for Wharton and help inspire these students was an extremely rewarding experience. I am super grateful for the Career Services Summer 2024 funding grant as it helped me learn to budget to cover my costs and have a great summer working in Philly!
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2024 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
