May 2026 – Edition 57
The Penn ELITE Fellowship welcomes its inaugural cohort, including Daniel Shackleton, WG’25; two former Jacobson Global Venture Award winners return to judge the competition; and team 2016 Chino Hills wins the 2026 Wharton High School Data Science Competition.
Meet the Fellows Working at the Intersection of Healthcare and Entrepreneurship
Supported by a landmark gift from Robin S. Wolpow, PAR’14, and Marc B. Wolpow, W’80, PAR’14 , the Emerging Leaders in Health Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn ELITE Fellowship) is a collaboration between Penn Health-Tech and Venture Lab. In August, the Fellowship welcomed its very first cohort of three outstanding Penn alumni, including Daniel Shackleton, WG’25, a recent Wharton graduate. The new yearlong program is designed to help Fellows from a range of academic and professional backgrounds make a positive impact on patients’ lives by leveraging their entrepreneurial skills.
How Early Votes of Confidence Impacted Two Lauder Entrepreneurs
2026 marked the tenth anniversary of the Jacobson Global Venture Awards, a pitch competition for student entrepreneurs at the Lauder Institute. Established through the generosity of Lauder alumna Marina Kunis Jacobson, G’93, WG’93, and Andrew Jacobson, WG’93, the awards provide winners with a $15,000 cash prize and other support to help grow their startups.
To commemorate the anniversary, we spoke with Ron Kerbs, G’20, WG’20, and Nestor Solari, G’19, WG’19, two former Jacobson Award winners who returned to judge this year’s milestone competition. They shared how winning boosted their confidence, helped them push toward the next steps of their journeys, and ultimately led them to commit to their ventures — Kidas, founded by Kerbs, and Sigo Seguros, co-founded by Solari. Both companies are still growing today and provide an inspiring example of the power of nurturing Wharton talent.
Team 2016 Chino Hills Wins the Wharton High School Data Science Competition
Over 700 teams from 48 countries took part in the 2026 Wharton High School Data Science Competition, hosted by the donor-supported Wharton Sports Analytics and Business Initiative (WSABI) and Wharton Global Youth Program (WGYP). This year, the competition challenged students to use their data science prowess to rank teams entering a fictional hockey tournament and predict how those teams would perform. On April 13, team 2016 Chino Hills of The Pingry School in Basking Ridge, NJ, took first place. Now, the members of the winning team — which derives its name from a legendary high school basketball team — share what challenges they faced along the way, as well as what they’re excited for.