Learning Day Is All Light and TastyKakes for this Year’s Investment Competitors
Make no mistake: the high school kids jogging down the center of the Wharton School’s Locust Walk on Friday, April 25 around 10:30 a.m. were not warming up for the Penn Relays. You may have seen them stop by Ben on the Bench for a quick photo in the sun, before dashing off toward Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Maybe you even heard talk of investment strategies and portfolio analysis.
Competitive high school students. A campus scavenger hunt. Selfies at Wharton School landmarks. Stock market banter. This could only mean one thing in late April: The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition Global Finale weekend had arrived.
Learning Day 2025
On April 25, 2025, some 40 high school students traveled (with teachers and parents) to the Wharton School campus in Philadelphia for a Friday of fun — leading into a fierce Saturday pitting the top 10 teams against each other for the chance at claiming competition gold, silver or bronze (Click here for Saturday’s competition results).
Friday’s Learning Day was a welcome distraction; a chance to celebrate teams’ Top 10 status pre-battle and explore the campus and conference halls of a world leader in business education.
Most importantly, Learning Day participants chatted with like-minded investment competitors during the hunt and a campus tour, and enjoyed some chill networking and great food (Philadelphia soft pretzels and TastyKakes!) before their big Saturday.
No learning day is complete without some academics. Serguei Netessine, Wharton professor and senior vice dean for innovation and global initiatives, presented his research on harnessing the value of time and location for renewable energy generation. Students also talked distressed investments, asset allocation, and more with Bilge Yilmaz, a Wharton finance professor and director of the Harris Family Alternative Investments Program. The day wrapped up – pre-pizza party – with a visit from the Wharton Ambassadors, who answered all students’ questions about Wharton and Penn.
Elia “Lily” S., a member of this year’s Finance from France team from Chicago, led an “Instagram takeover” of the Wharton Global Youth story during Learning Day. In addition to sharing the experience in photos, she also reflected on the Learning Day vibe.
“I was incredibly excited, and at the same time nervous, to connect with the other teams,” says Lily, whose team delivered a powerful investment strategy presentation on Saturday (be sure to check out those results). “But what I took away from it was that no matter how much we tried to hide it, a part of all of us was nervous about the final outcome of the competition because we had all worked so hard for the same goal. That mutual drive allowed us to let our walls down, gain respect for one another, and be vulnerable together. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced something that let me connect with so many peers in such a short amount of time. It was especially powerful given the shared environment. It was inspiring to exchange ideas and experiences with students from so many different backgrounds.”
