KWHS Global Young Leaders Academy – An Incredible Experience

So yesterday someone asked me to describe my experience in the KWHS Wharton Summer School. My reply was “extraordinary”, but now contemplating my reply, I realize that it cannot possibly be summarized in one word.

Yes, the experience of staying in University of Pennsylvania and studying in the Jon Huntsman Wharton Building would be overwhelmingly amazing for any student but that’s not it.

From learning the Time Value of money from the Director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute at Penn – Prof. Mauro Guillen, to being the CFO of PolyAqua, the team that won the KWHS Business plan competition. . . this journey was amazing.

Professor Mauro Guillen teaching us in Room 240 of the Jon M. Hunstman Hall at UPenn.

Even though winning the competition was a highlight and would add a lot to my achievements as a student, but still, I believe that the journey itself and the acquaintances I made were the most important things. The way in which strangers became family within two weeks was elating. Because, with them, staying up till 3 AM working on business plan, and then managing to reach the class on time at 8 AM seemed like nothing.

I remember the first time I stepped into the historic campus, which has shaped geniuses across the world in each and every economic sector, the campus which has produced the likes of Warren Buffet and Sundhar Pichai, I was overwhelmed.

What first seemed to be an amazing program panned out to be both more amazing and harder than I thought it would be. The experience was that of a frog coming out of the well in which it had been living for years. The pool of knowledge I had immersed myself in was ‘FUN’ only because of the amazing professors of Wharton. We toiled day in and day out during the week days, sometimes studying for as much as 11 hours, and only breaking for lunch and dinner. We had a lot of FUN going around the campus, going to Washington DC, SIX FLAGS and various museums on the weekends.Volunteering at Philabundance to provide food for the homeless was my way of showing Philly some brotherly love.

Outside the Class of 1920 Commons, with the boys

From the moment I landed in New York “alone”, to the moment when PolyAqua won the business competition and my team celebrated in a frenzy of shrieks, this was a journey that I can’t possibly forget. And I’ve made friends I would never leave.

Signing off;
This was Aniketh Khutia,
CFO, PolyAqua;
Knowledge@Wharton High School Global Young Leaders Academy

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