Diana Drake, managing editor of Knowledge@Wharton High School, spoke to BrainGain Magazine about the Global Young Leaders’ Academy’s summer programs on finance and entrepreneurship, the Ivy League experience, what makes a global young leader, and things students need to do in school other than studying. We will be publishing edited excerpts from interaction in two parts. This is the first.

• Q: Can you give us a brief overview of the Global Young Leaders Academy? Where has the idea come from and how have you seen this grow?
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• A: The Global Young Leaders Academy is an exciting experience that we offer to high school students on the Wharton campus in Philadelphia each summer. It has grown out of all the ways that we try to connect with high school students and educators through Knowledge@Wharton High School.
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• We have this great content, we have this great network of students and teachers, and we decided that we should be leveraging those tools to help students learn and find out what it’s like to live on an Ivy League campus. We have that wonderful opportunity being at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. GYLA has grown exponentially. We've been able to attract students from around the world, more than 40 countries. Each of the different sessions that we offer, and this summer we'll be offering 5 sessions for our entrepreneurship track and 3 sessions for our finance track, are international in nature and give students the opportunity to be exposed to different cultures even within the classroom. That's such an exciting thing for a student who's 16 or 17 years old!
  
   
• Q. What happens during the program?
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• A: The Global Young Leader's Academy is a 2-week session on the Wharton campus and usually we accept 50-60 students per session. They come to the campus, they get acclimated, and they immediately start learning.
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• We have 5 sessions that are focused on the entrepreneurship theme. So, they're learning everything about innovation, they're learning some finance skills, they're also learning about teamwork.
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• One of the greatest components of GYLA is that students are building a business plan from almost day 1, so they have a competition. Everybody loves a good competition! The GYLA business competition is where they're assigned a team at the beginning, and they work in the team to develop an idea. And then they have to see that idea all the way through the entrepreneurial stages to the point where they might bring it to the market. So, they're learning these concepts around marketing, finance, and innovation and all the things that go into building a small company. Then they're applying those ideas by creating a company and competing at the very end. So that's just a very fun way for them to learn!
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• In addition to having academic sessions with Wharton professors, and with postgrads, the students also engage with residential advisers who are students from campus. They have applied learning sessions, which is an exciting aspect of GYLA. They have icebreakers, and the GYLA circle where they get to talk about things other than school for a change. They're doing lots of fun activities around campus and outside of campus as well.
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• So, it’s more than just a robust learning experience, although I would say that's   the basis of it. It’s coming to an Ivy League school, getting the chance to be exposed to these wonderful rock-star professors and teachers, getting to know each other, building a network of friends, and having a great time.
   
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• Q: What differentiates the Global Young Leaders’ Academy from other summer programs?
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• A: GYLA is different from other summer programs in that it's such a holistic experience for a student. It's not just this rigorous academic experience for them. That is a very important part of it. But, at the same time, we recognize that students don't like things that are all work, right? There must be that component where they're enjoying themselves. So, we build in a lot of fun activities for them and a lot of opportunities for them to get to know each other a little bit better. They come in the first day of that 2-week session and many of them look terrified. But what ends up happening is that by the end of those 2 weeks, when I come in and I see them again, they are   transformed. I mean, they're all joking with each other, and they've made great friends, built a network of people that they're going to stay connected to for life.
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• And I think that's what sets us apart. That [connection] and the fun aspect. They go to [Six Flags] Great Adventure, they do all these activities together, and that helps them with team building, with relationship building, which is so fundamental for a high school student, especially when they're away from home.
   
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• Q: What's in store for the fifth edition in 2019?
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• A: Well, more students, because we've been growing. We've had such demand for the program, so we'll be adding more sessions this summer, which is very exciting!
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• Also, we try to take what we can learn from each past summer and build upon it. And one thing we've heard is that the students, while they like the academics, they also want to explore some of these classroom concepts in different ways. So, we've added a new component to the GYLA this summer which is an applied learning session.
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• And that's exciting because the students might learn about innovation in the classroom, and instead of just leaving it at the door with that lecture, they go into a smaller group and discuss innovation in more practical ways. They're using Knowledge@Wharton High School articles, and lesson plans to explore conversation starters about innovation, or do fun activities that help them to practice what they've learned. That practical learning will be a real value added to the Global Young Leaders Academy.
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• This summer we're adding more chances for them to interact with each other in intimate groups - meaning that they'll be able to do this GYLA circle, where maybe they're talking to their classmates about life lessons, or about their lives. Not their academic lives, but their cool high school lives, and you know, connecting on a different level.
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• Being intentional about that is a great way to get students to interact, help them come out of their shell, and get to know each other.
   
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• Q: Can you also tell us more about the GYLA finance track?
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• A: Absolutely. We're very excited about the new finance track!
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• So, this summer, we're adding three sessions that are focused on finance. And it’s not just corporate finance or finance that you might go to Wall Street for, but this overview of finance and everything that it entails.
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• Students who join our finance program will learn concepts like what is money and the time value of money. The very basics. We all think we know what it is! But it’s   neat to look at the history of money, and to understand what currency is. And then, from that point, the focus is on understanding investing, the investing world, and getting a chance to work in teams to do other things.
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• They'll be looking at risk and return, understanding what a portfolio is, how to analyse companies, and what corporate finance means. So, all of those areas: what are ratios, what are financial ratios. Our hope is that some of the students, who have gone through [the Investment Competition], have already scratched the surface of these concepts might be very interested in learning more about how they can become good at managing their money in this way.
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• The finance GYLA is not just for the investment competition kids. It’s also for students who are just getting an introduction to finance, and they think, ‘Maybe this might be a career for me!’ Or maybe, ‘I want to learn a little more about the stock market. And this is how I want to do it.’ I want to immerse myself in the Global Young Leaders’ Academy and learn from these great professors and PhD students.
   
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• Q: What do you look for in a Global Young leader?
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• A: I would say the first and foremost is that we want them to be good students. We want them to be academically achieving students, who enjoy school and have a real intellectual curiosity and passion for knowledge. That's because they're going to come to campus and spend two weeks with us, they're going to be in different sessions and learning throughout. So, we want to make sure that they're committed to embracing knowledge in different ways.
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• But we're also looking for students who aren't afraid to step outside of their comfort zone! And maybe, for a lot of them, it's coming to a new country. Maybe they're risk takers. They're willing to try this new experience that might be thousands of miles from where they're used to being. And we want students who feel confident, who want to develop their leadership skills.
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• At the end of the day, the things that I've just mentioned: stepping out of your comfort zone & being in a new place, [intellectual curiosity] and embracing knowledge – these are the stepping stones to becoming a leader.
   
• And we want to develop tomorrow's leaders through our programs. 

 
Here’s more you should read about summer programs:
Calling all high school students! Here's your chance to learn finance at an Ivy League university this summer program
Calling all high-school students! Apply now for Arizona State University's robotics and tech summer program
Summer at Wharton: My ‘dream come true’