Wharton MBA Application Essay 2: Taking into consideration your background – personal, professional, and/or academic – how do you plan to make specific, meaningful contributions to the Wharton community? (400 words)
The narrative opens with the applicant’s sensitivity towards Pets and how the empathy evolved into a passion for serving the voiceless. The applicant then transitions to a project in college where she noticed the under-representation of the Hispanic community in STEM. The gap is validated with a statistic, and the narrative then transitions into a non-profit she started while working at McKinsey.
The challenges of limited access to laptops and unreliable broadband connection among the Hispanic community are quoted as two problems her non-profit solved. A similar contribution at Wharton by collaborating with the Wharton Latin American student association to serve the Philadelphia Hispanic population is the 2nd half of the narrative.
A historical context on the immigration pattern to Philadelphia is the start of the narrative with the 2020 covid crisis cited to validate the already poor socio-economic conditions of the community. The factors are presented to make a coherent argument that a radical shift in job occupation is necessary to avoid another 2020-like catastrophe.
The plan to shift the community’s focus on a viable alternative career in Technology through a systematic retraining program is the big audacious goal that the applicant mentions. The support of the Wharton community and leveraging her experience at her non-profit is mentioned to improve the believability of the goal.
Sample Wharton MBA Application Meaningful contributions Essay #2: Radical Solution for the Hispanic Community in Philadelphia (400 Words)
As a 3-year-old, I would ask my parents why pets die and do they feel pain. The answers led me to the tragic realization that they can’t communicate. The sensitivity towards the voiceless became an extension of how I identified with the underrepresented in the community. In college, while leading a research project, I noticed a pattern – Hispanics were the least represented in STEM, with the gap between the total workforce and the percentage in the function extending more than 10% nationally but remaining closer in cities where we are the majority.
Recognizing the need to build a community around STEM, I started a non-profit Latino in STEM. Managing the non-profit while holding onto a full-time role at McKinsey responsible for digital transformation was a balancing act. However, I could bring my experience to the non-profit and develop a strategy that brought ....

