Wharton Women teach high-school girls how to be 'Dollar Divas'

Last Friday, Houston Hall’s Hall of Flags was filled with high-school girls competing to be the next Dollar Diva.

They proved their worthiness by filling out checks, answering interview questions and guessing the price of a Gossip Girl Season 4 DVD set (It’s $59.98).

Wharton Women hosted its ninth annual Dollar Diva conference last weekend. High-school students from the local Eastern University Academy Charter School, Kensington High School for International Business, Abraham Lincoln High School, Roxborough High School and Philadelphia High School for Business and Technology attended.

The Dollar Divas event is in line with Wharton Women’s mission to “further [women’s] success in their careers,” Wharton junior Lilian Chen said.

Chen, who is Wharton Women’s vice president of philanthropy, began planning for the conference last summer.

The conference started with a lesson on banking basics where high-school students learned the difference between savings accounts and checking accounts, how cash back works and the dangers of fraud.

“A dollar diva knows that money can be spent somewhere else … [like] shopping,” joked Wharton sophomore Rene Poellinetz, the first speaker at the conference.

A second session tested the audience’s knowledge with a price guessing game where students were asked to determine how expensive an item could be.

Wharton Women members also advised their younger peers on when to save and splurge while shopping for items like clothes and cosmetics.

“You can think about spending that time and money [in order to] earn much more per week,” Wharton junior and Wharton Women community chair Sharon Li said.

Other panels included admissions speakers from Penn and Temple University who discussed the cost of a college education and how to apply.

The panel urged students to show their personalities when applying.

“This is not a numbers game anymore,” Penn Admissions representative Alice Cheung said.

Another panel invited Wharton students to speak about their college experience. The high-school students asked questions about majors and living situations. A career panel and mock interview taught the students how to land the job and how to dress for success.

A final fashion show invited representatives from each table who had participated the most in the conference to be crowned Dollar Divas.

“It’s been evolving every year [and has been] a mutual learning experience,” Wharton sophomore Maxine Winston said.

Li added that she enjoyed reading surveys that newly-minted Dollar Divas completed anonymously.

One student called the conference “fun, entertaining, and educational,” while another thanked Wharton Women for teaching them something new.

A critique that stood out was that the conference should have been longer.

“They’re all just so excited at the end of the day,” Winston said.

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