A look at Wharton Latino's year

Starting off with an undergraduate career fair tomorrow, the members of Wharton Latino are preparing for an eventful year.

The long-standing group, headed by College and Wharton senior Sebastian Negron-Reichard, helps integrate and incorporate Latino students into both Wharton and Penn at large. The club is undergoing significant changes under the vision of its leader.

“For years and years, Wharton Latino has had three important components: social, community service and pre-professional,” Negron-Reichard said. “My vision is to revamp as much as possible each of those branches by putting the right people in the right place to lead those branches, and expand the club as much as possible.”

There has also been a greater emphasis on getting members more involved.

“For our members, we have doubled the amount of GBMs per semester. We have more events during the month. We have more social events during the month as well,” Negron-Reichard added.

Specifically, there has been a push to get freshmen more involved via a series of freshman initiatives.

College junior and co-corporate liaison Werner Glass said that the freshman initiatives have been a new development for the club. The initiatives allow freshmen to plan a social event for the group, helping them get integrated into the Wharton Latino community.

On top of that, the club has a number of yearly community service events. Along with the annual career fair, the club also holds an annual rose sale in February — with all proceeds going to a nonprofit organization — along with a few other events.

Wharton senior and co-corporate liaison Gabriel Cruz added that the club holds an annual Easter party with the Northern Children’s Services Center, so students can see how Wharton Latino can make an impact.

Through the many dinners, BYOs and other social events, a strong community has grown within the group.

"It's a group I want to get involved with because it relates most closely to my identity as a Latino and a Brazilian within Wharton," College and Wharton freshman Bernardo Sarti said.

Coupled with the strong community are the connections Wharton Latino has made in the corporate world and the group’s ability to link their members with the nation’s top companies. The group received sponsorships from firms ranging from Google to Goldman Sachs, as well as companies outside the nation, like the Brazilian consulting firm Falconi.

Still, with the numerous conferences, info sessions and dinners, Wharton Latino has been able to balance intensive business outreach and relaxing social events. Negron-Reichard added that all are welcome to come to the meetings.

"They've done a really great job in promoting both fun, social events for members to mingle and more serious professional matter, like an exclusive info session from Google I attended last week. They strike a solid balance between the two," Sarti said.

A previous version of this article referred to Werner Glass as a Wharton junior. He is a College junior. The DP regrets the error. 

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