The Wharton Women club teamed up with the Philadelphia division of the national organization Girls Incorporated to host the first DollarDiva Conference at Houston Hall.
About 25 to 30 girls from various schools in the West Philadelphia area attended the workshop, which was designed to teach them how to budget their money given various scenarios of weekly salary and necessary expenditures.
DollarDiva was important because it afforded the opportunity to "give back to the Philadelphia community and simultaneously do something that furthered the mission of Wharton Women, which is to empower women in business," Wharton Women member Bibi Schweitzer said.
The club ran the event in conjunction with Independent Means Inc., a national financial conferences organization.
"I've done this seminar a few different times, and one of the most interesting things that I find is that it really crosses all economic backgrounds. I've done it all over the country for different groups of girls," Independent Means presenter Kelly Dolson said.
"As long as each girl leaves here with something that they didn't know before they walked in the door, I feel completely fulfilled. I think in every group you have girls that really get into it, and then you have some girls that don't care," Dolson said. "Even the girls who seem like they're not interested, they gain something."
Wharton Women members enjoyed the opportunity to explain business concepts to younger women.
"I really think it's useful because there are these girls who really don't have much of a concept of how much it costs to live and how much you end up taking home," Wharton Women member Lauren Selevan said.
"Through the lifestyle exercise they did, one girl realized her mom only takes home $200 a week. She was like, 'I don't know how my mom does it -- she has to pay all these expenses and health care and pay the rent and support me and my brother,'" Selevan said, adding that the exercise helped the girls to organize and budget their potential expenses.
Wharton Women covered the fees of hosting the event and had breakfast and lunch donated by Au Bon Pain, Starbucks, Wawa and Einstein Brothers Bagels.
"I think it's really important and special to have something like this. I'm thrilled that we're doing it," Schweitzer said of the workshop -- which took the club nine months to plan -- and added that she hoped to turn this into an annual event.
"This DollarDiva's Conference is an excellent idea," said Wanda Washington, a business education teacher from Roxborough High School in Philadelphia, whose students are in ninth through 11th grade. She felt that what was being taught at the conference complemented what she is currently teaching her students.
"What's really neat about it is [that] the vocabulary and terminology they are using supports what we're actually doing in our classroom. It's something that supports what the teachers are doing in the classroom, and it's bringing my textbook alive for me," she added.
Girls Inc. coordinator Natasha Jackson said that Penn was an easy choice for hosting the conference since many of the women that volunteer with Girls Inc. are Penn students.
"I think it's good to have the girls exposed to different career opportunities," Jackson said.
"The girls seem pretty engaged, and that's all I can ask for. The program is great and we love Penn, and I'm looking for more Penn recruits, actually," she added.
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