Congratulations to Pay It Forward, the new Wharton Graduate Association (WGA) Executive Board.  The slate claimed victory in last week’s WGA election and has an ambitious agenda with numerous social impact related initiatives:

• Replacing the core curriculum TAP project (a leadership project which for many students has become a source of humorous derision) with a community service project.
• Instituting an “adopt a non-profit” program whereby each cohort commits to working with a local non-profit over the course of the 2 year MBA program.
• Creating a “Business 101″ seminar during pre-term for students with non-traditional backgrounds.
• Expanding the Legal Aspects of Business & Ethics portion of the core curriculum.

Given the extent of Pay It Forward’s social impact focus, it was actually quite (pleasantly) surprising, at least to this second year observer, that they won.  I suppose the general lesson of the “pay it forward” philosophy is that there is a great deal of untapped goodness to humanity.  Apparently there is a nascent well of goodness in the Wharton community that showed up at the ballot box last week.

With any luck, this will be the start of a groundswell of change that will indeed begin to reshape the Wharton brand around educating socially responsible business leaders.  By initiating change now, we will all ”pay it forward” to future generations of students creating an institution committed to the idea that business for global good (as new Dean Robertson would say) is not just a catch phrase, but a professional commitment.

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