Wharton’s 2024 Comment and Win Contest Ends with Innovation and Inspiration
What did innovation look like in Round 4 of the 2024 Comment and Win, which ran from July 22 to August 9? More than 100 commenters – tasked with making ideas presented in Wharton Global Youth articles even better – gave us everything from optimized pollination periods, compostable packaging and tea tourism in Yunnan, to pumpkin spice and mood-enhancing aromatherapy gummies and red bean and ube-infused cake pops. 🤔
As always, you made us think!
Still, we want to address the algorithm in the room: Artificial Intelligence. It’s such an exciting time of innovation, driven largely by AI, which was not lost on our Round 4 commenters — AI in microgrids and virtual power plants, health care diagnostics and contextually accurate translations of dialogues in foreign films.
AI does make life intriguing, and perhaps better – though that is up for debate. Comment and Win 2024 has been a summer-long revelation about the firestorm surrounding generative AI, fueled by conflicting messages from teachers and administrators. Just check out the comments on AI and You: How to Be the Humans in the Loop, How Will AI and Hybrid Work Change Your Job? And Murder Mysteries, Mock Interviews and the GenAI Revolution to surrender with AI abandon to issues that high school students are wrestling with.
And then there’s the other side of AI among the pages of this year’s competition…as in, using AI in place of your human voice. At Wharton, we appreciate mind-blowing new tools like ChatGPT to spark creative thinking. We hoped, however, that you would not use them to inform entire innovations and shape complete comments. We got pretty good at detecting a “generative” tone by Round 4, and suspected deep tech assistance when certain innovation themes appeared on repeat, like new YouTube channels, awareness campaigns, subscription services and companion apps.
Comments are, by nature, a way to express your ideas, opinions and aspirations. We celebrated commenters who drew from their personal toolkit of experiences and knowledge to share thoughts on how to enrich existing innovations. With so many consistent commenters this summer, we looked for you to pull the “threads” of your summer commenting together in Round 4, with creative thinking, informed insights, conversational tones, and connections to your life and work. Authentic voices resonated.
Here are the best commenters in Round 4 of Wharton’s 2024 Comment and Win Competition:
Congratulations to Round 4 Top Commenter Beatriz R., 17 and a student at Colégio Arena in Brazil, for her comment on A Tool for Student Loans and Advice for Your Financial Future. Beatriz identified a key limitation of the new Finiverse student loan app (which directly impacted her) and provided solid suggestions for how to make it more inclusive of international students. We’re sharing your thoughts with Wharton’s Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance, Beatriz!
The Round 4 First Runner-up intrigued us with his research, which helped him identify economic gaps ripe for innovative thought. In his comment on Your Future as an ESG Pioneer, Max X., 16 and a student at Livingston High School in New Jersey, U.S., drew from his recent study at Harvard University to suggest how redefined economic policies might inspire more interest in electric vehicles and encourage EV use among lower-income families, where pollution from cars tends to be greater.
Second Runner-up Baokang Z., 17 and a student at Redmond High School in Washington, U.S., had us at the line, “After all, aren’t tires just shoes for cars?” Baokang’s comment on Tire-inspired Footwear that is Helping the Planet and Empowering India’s Cobblers imagined a product extension for Tyron’s sandals made out of recycled tires – rubber-spiked golf shoes. It might work, Baokang! All we need is some data analysis, which you explored during your time at Wharton’s Moneyball Academy.
Kelly Z., 16 and a student at Polytechnic High School in California, U.S., is the Round 4 Third Runner-up. Kelly delivered “food for thought” with her comment on Tackling Social Inequality One Fresh Apple at a Time. We appreciated Kelly’s detailed response to podcast guest Carrie Lange, and applauded the viability of her thoughtful suggestions. Plus, we love apple pie. 🥧
Fourth Runner-up honors go to Jason D., 16 and a student at Bluffton High School in South Carolina, U.S., for his comment on Murder Mysteries, Mock Interviews, and the GenAI Revolution. In a world of high-tech innovations, we welcomed Jason’s human-centered problem-solving, inspired by his observations while working with middle school students this summer.
Our final top commenter in Round 4 is Fifth Runner-up Ina N., 16 and a student at Lower Cape May Regional High School in New Jersey, U.S., for her comment on A Budding Bio Entrepreneur Makes Nutritional Gummies for Teens. While some of this round’s innovative thinking was, well, excessive – Ina made it look easy, building on a specific point from the podcast to imagine a clear, clever and succinct idea for smart gummy marketing.
Congratulations to all our Round 4 winners! You will receive business-themed e-books written by Wharton School faculty from our collaborator, Wharton School Press.
And now, a few innovation-inspired superlatives awarded to Round 4 commenters around specific themes.
Best Comment Sprinklers (bursts of brief innovation): Mete C., 15 and a student at the Koc School in Turkey, for comments like this one on Studying Social Media Use to Quantify Emotions and Improve Mental Health, and Srinitya P., 16 and a student at Appoquinimink High School in Delaware, U.S., for comments like this one on A Start-up Tea Brand Chases a New Generation of ‘Tea Friends’ and Profits for Yunnan Farmers.
Most Intriguing Analysis: Carter K., 16 and a student at Notre Dame Preparatory School in Maryland, U.S., for his comment on Behind the Scenes: The Science of Moviemaking.
Strongest Consumer Champion: Brian C., 15 and a student at Stuyvesant High School in New York, U.S., for his comment on A Budding Bio Entrepreneur Makes Nutritional Gummies for Teens.
Innovation Gone Wild: Sophie Z., 16 and a student at Roy C. Ketcham High School, for her comment on Challenging the S’mores Legacy with a Campfire Innovation (Ah, the simplicity of a marshmallow and a stick!).
The 2024 Grand Prize
It’s time to announce our Grand Prize winner. We had a lot of repeat customers this summer, putting several dedicated commenters in the running for the GP. Many of you won top commenter positions, superlatives and our hearts across the four rounds, with your expressive comments on varied business and finance topics. You are all Comment and Winners to us!
But, alas, one voice truly rang out from the moment she dropped her first comment on June 13, 2024 at 8:54 a.m., noting, “Gen Z highly values developmental opportunities. So, they will probably prefer to work at organizations that invest in their professional development.” She went on to comment nine more times during the four rounds, scoring a top commenter, two first runners-up and a superlative award. Congratulations to Beatriz R. of Colégio Arena in Brazil!
Beatriz’s commenting excellence came down to her love of business, strong self-expression and ability to seamlessly weave personal experiences into her reflections. She left pieces of herself in the pages of Wharton Global Youth, while delivering solid, insightful analyses and opinions, as any good comment should: “Noah, how did you live that long without Feijoada? It’s the best Brazilian dish ever (maybe it loses only to “Galinhada”; you should try it if you haven’t).” Beatriz expressed genuine connections to our content this summer – and we, in turn, connected with her.
Great job to our grand 2024 Comment and Winner! A box of Wharton Global Youth swag will soon arrive on your doorstep. We hope to get it there in time for the Philadelphia Eagles season opener in São Paulo on September 6 (Wharton is based at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia). 😉
That’s a Wrap
We are sad to say that Comment & Win 2024 has come to a close. What a summer! You all dropped 490 comments from 35 different countries. We are grateful for your engagement — and celebrate all you are taking away from your weeks inside the pages of a Wharton School business education for high school students. Please read the Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 reports, or simply follow the commenting thread on one of your favorite articles to feel the energy. You’ll quickly see why this is one of our favorite annual activities.
We turn to Dmitry G., a student from Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York, U.S., for this year’s final word. Dmitry’s posts in every round were fun to read and always struck a clever, conversational tone. We suspect he genuinely enjoyed spending his summer with Comment and Win.
This quote appeared in his Round 4 comment on A Budding Bio Entrepreneur Makes Nutritional Gummies for Teens: “Participating in this Wharton Comment and Win Contest has opened my eyes to the many people who are driven to make the world a “better” place (as cliché as that may sound), and I am a bit embarrassed to say this, but I want to truly express my gratitude for your courage to share your passions with the world with such care and diplomacy. It is a blessing that I can productively invest my time in reading about your business and later share with my family the interesting perspectives I have learned from your article and others.”
Our sentiments exactly, Dmitry! See you all in the comments. ❤️