Oliver Ardery | Wharton's brotherly love

I spent my August as an incoming Wharton MBA student in pre-term mode, taking preparatory courses on my new campus in advance of the first semester.

Like many classmates, I studied sampling distributions, logarithmic functions, demand curve and other foundation concepts. In addition to class, I cavorted around Center City with my classmates, sampling Philadelphia's great food. Pre-term life was stimulating, but it wasn't just about academics and socializing.

Saturday, August 16, I had my first "Aha!" moment at Penn.

That day, I teamed with 200 other Wharton students, faculty and administrators to build a playground at the Wissahickon Charter School in North Philadelphia.

My day started around 6 a.m., when eight of us, all first-year MBAs, boarded a bus from Wharton to the school to receive our assignments as "Build Captains."

In this role, we would each be responsible for completing one section of the overall playground construction by 3 p.m.

To me, serving as a "Build Captain" meant an opportunity to develop leadership skills, since I'd get to lead others in whatever building task the project managers would assign. It also meant an opportunity to create some social capital in my new city through volunteering. Both these opportunities played out in satisfying ways, but the day differed from my expectations in how leadership and social responsibility actually came together.

Getting off the bus at Wissahickon, I was told my team would build a "cloud walk," which is a set of twisting steps rising above ground, the steps attached to four poles cemented into the ground.

Up until that day, my greatest construction accomplishment had consisted of winning back-to-back games of Jenga.

So, it's safe to say I was feeling a little anxious about my assignment, especially given the timeline.

Luckily, leadership arrived when the other members of my team entered the school lot, ready to go to work.

Quickly, I went from "Build Captain" to "Build Co-Captain," as we collectively organized our task into sub-tasks that we could learn and address concurrently in order to finish the cloud walk on time. Looking back, it was leadership in its most classic form: leading by doing. This was reinforced by the fact that working hand in hand with my classmates were members of Wharton's faculty and administration, including Vice Dean Anjani Jain and Deputy Vice Dean Peggy Bishop Lane.

Later that day, I learned that our efforts were not an isolated do-good / feel-good event but instead were one thread in a larger fabric stitched together by second-year Wharton students, the administration and alumni, who together had seen the potential of our ability to give back to the broader Philadelphia area.

This belief in Wharton's potential for "brotherly love" is not some ephemeral attitude. During the dean's lunch in August, Dean Thomas Robertson told us pre-termers that making Wharton a force for good in the world is one of his top priorities. I think there are many in the Wharton and larger Penn community who share this view.

Many of my classmates who volunteered at Wissahickon told me they were thankful for the opportunity to volunteer because it allowed them to give back.

I've attended some of the Wharton Social Impact meetings preparing for November's Net Impact Conference ( www.netimpact.org) and, suffice it to say, many classmates are pumped about getting involved.

One prominent Penn alumnus who definitely agrees with Dean Robertson is Philadelphia's Mayor Michael Nutter, who attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Wissahickon Charter School playground.

The Mayor thanked us for our efforts but reminded us that much more can be done in Philly and concluded his remarks by saying, "As the song goes, I ain't too proud to beg. I beg you to connect with the Philadelphia community."

Oliver Ardery is an MBA 2010 student from Louisville, Ky. His e-mail is oardery@wharton.upenn.edu.

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