“Learning Sprints give [high school] students an opportunity to really understand what it feels like to be in a Wharton classroom and to learn from Wharton faculty,” says Lena Elguindi, senior director of programs for Wharton Global Youth Program.

A priority this year for the Wharton Global Youth Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has been to innovate and improve on the delivery of robust business education programs for high school students.

With a focus on modern finance and private equity, the Global Youth team flipped the calendar year and pursued this goal in earnest with its first-ever Wharton Global Youth Learning Sprint, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Wharton professors David Musto and Burcu Esmer guided students in connecting Nobel Prize-winning theories to real-world investing, and introduced core finance principles like diversification, index funds, IPOs, and private equity. Sachin Khajuria, founder and CIO at private investment firm Achilles, delivered a keynote building on the insights from “Two and Twenty,” his book about private markets.

 

“What a thrill it was to teach alongside Burcu Esmer and Sachin Khajuria,” said Musto, Wharton’s Ronald O. Perelman professor of finance and director of the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance. “I’m looking forward to seeing our great students again!”

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By Diana Drake

Posted: February 9, 2026

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