If you happen to see green balls flying around campus this spring, don’t be alarmed. Wharton senior Justin Krause, a member of the Wharton Council, explains that it’s part of an annual game called “Hostile Takeover,” which is intended as a way for Wharton undergrads to meet more students.
Hostile Takeover is just one of many social activities organized by the Wharton Council. The group also organizes events like club fairs for freshmen and oversees and funds about 40 Wharton undergraduate clubs. “We are a small group of students trying to improve student life and foster a more complete co-curricular experience outside of the classroom,” says Krause, a real estate major from Colorado.
As a Wharton Council member, Krause’s biggest project this year was to help organize the Wharton Undergraduate Leadership Forum (WULF). The event brought together club and student government leaders to talk about issues in the undergraduate community and how organizations can best serve students.
“There are a lot of leaders at Wharton and this was a chance for us to talk about what works and what everyone is doing because a lot of clubs are doing really amazing things,” says Krause.
The event began with presentations from groups like DZINE 2 SHOW, which publishes a magazine that Krause says looks just like Vogue, but is produced entirely by Penn students. They talked about how they organize their big fashion show every year, bringing in student designers from all over the university. “It’s a cool organization and I’m not even into fashion,” says Krause.
Another presentation was from business fraternity Phi Gamma Nu about how they connect with other organizations to throw their big internship fair each year. “It’s one of the biggest fairs for juniors looking for internships and the students organize the entire thing -- even contacting the companies themselves,” says Krause.
He says that the Wharton Council has been like a “giant laboratory” where he’s had the chance to try out what he’s learned in the classroom, and the skills he’s developed on the council have helped him in the classroom too. “When I took a Negotiations class, I did really well because for the past two years I was negotiating on the Wharton Council so it was a nice complement to school.”
Krause adds that his involvement with the Wharton Council has been a central part of his experience at Wharton. “This is an organization where you can really be a big part of things for a relatively long time and integrate it into your social life. When I think back on my time at Wharton, this is what I’ll think of first.”
