Hometown: Bainbridge Island, WA
Education: BA, Government and Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College
Before Wharton: The Advisory Board Company
After Wharton: Strategy Consulting
My Day at a Glance
Julia Cohen
My Story About Me
We are about social enterprise, international development, typical nonprofit stuff—as well as looking at the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
A Wharton asset
One of Wharton’s greatest assets is this incredible diversity. This year, I was the diversity chair for my cohort, helping to ensure that people have the resources they needed to understand a group of 70 people with 32 countries represented. In my opinion, there’s no other place in the world I could have gone to meet so different people from such different backgrounds.
The value of diversity
Wharton has shown me that the best results are achieved in a setting when you have the most diverse set of inputs. The more diversity you have approaching a problem, the more you can analyze a situation from different perspectives and ultimately reach a better output. Performance is driven by diversity and the rigors that come from reconciling diverse ideas.
Room to grow
You can’t take things for granted in the Wharton community because everyone has some permutation of life, whether it’s their country, racial or ethnic background, family perspectives, or professional and education background. In that sense, it gives you a lot of room to grow if you are open to it. It’s what makes Wharton’s community more vibrant.
Creating a new trajectory
I specifically came to Wharton because the growth at my last company, a healthcare for-profit, was limited and didn’t provide the job trajectory I was looking for. Now, in the short term, I’ve decided to do consulting, getting out of the healthcare space and looking more broadly at other sectors. I’m now more interested in the strategy behind certain functions of the industry.
Discovering for-profit social enterprise
For-profit social enterprise is definitely something I discovered at Wharton. And I’ve begun to develop entrepreneurial ideas because of this. Through the Net Impact Conference, speakers, etc., I’ve seen more connections between my previous academic background, my personal side interests, and my growing business skills. As a result, in the long term, I’d like to launch a for-profit social enterprise related to preventative care and access to nutrition.
Social Impact at Wharton
I serve as vice president of brand strategy for the Social Impact Club, helping to change the way people think about social impact at Wharton. People typically think of Wharton as a more traditional school but that’s not what we are about. We are about social enterprise, international development, typical nonprofit stuff—as well as looking at the nonprofit and for-profit sectors to see how they can have a social impact in the business setting.
A Wharton moment
A series of moments throughout my Wharton experience have helped alter my perspective on myself and business. Coming in, I didn’t understand how I could do business and also generate social value. Now, I’m starting to get a better handle on that. I feel fortunate to be at Wharton as I think about ideas and the importance of generating social value in a business setting.
