Explore 10 Impact Courses at Penn for Spring Semester 2025
Deepen your knowledge, expand your toolkit, and power your impact this fall. Explore ten of the many impact, value, and sustainable business courses available to Penn and Wharton students in the upcoming semester.
These listings are subject to change. Please review Path@Penn or MyWharton for additional courses, as well as up-to-date section information, class times, and registration info. Visit your major or concentration page to confirm which courses count towards your program requirements.
ENMG 5120 Energy Geopolitics and National Security
It’s commonly accepted that national energy policies have direct impacts on regional security and global geopolitical dynamics. But what happens when energy itself becomes a national security issue? Contemporary headlines illustrate the risk of viewing energy policy strictly through an economic lens. Authoritarian states continue to weaponize energy resources against dependent global democracies, while democracies increasingly rely on high-profile energy sectoral sanctions and technology export controls as vital tools of economic statecraft. Both examples illustrate how actors can use energy strategically, in both offensive and defensive capacities. An understanding of these threats is essential to developing sound energy diplomacy strategies to ensure that the energy transition is realized in a way that supports regional stability, security, and human rights.
This course will teach students how to develop multidisciplinary energy analysis, policy recommendations, and diplomatic strategies that can work to address these global energy security challenges. The course will assess as a case study the current European energy infrastructure landscape and ask students to propose infrastructure, regulatory, and physical/cyber security strategies from the perspective of a practitioner of energy diplomacy.
1 Course Unit
Tuesday/Thursday 1:45pm-3:14pm
Dr. Benjamin L. Schmitt
LGST 1010 Law and Social Values
This course presents law as an evolving social institution, with special emphasis on the legal regulation of business in the context of social values. It considers basic concepts of law and legal process, in the U.S. and other legal systems, and introduces the fundamentals of rigorous legal analysis. An in-depth examination of contract law is included.
1 Course Unit
Multiple class sections and instructors, see MyWharton for more information.
LGST 2150 Environmental Management: Law & Policy
This course provides an introduction to environmental management by focusing on foundational concepts of environmental law and policy and how they affect business decisions. The primary aim of the course is to give students a deeper practical sense of the important relationship between business and the natural environment, the existing legal and policy framework of environmental protection, and how business managers can think about managing their relationship with both the environment and the law.
1 Course Unit
Tuesday/Thursday 8:30am-9:59am
Prof. Sarah Light
LGST/OIDD 7620 Environmental Sustainability & Value Creation
This course provides an overview of topics related to corporate sustainability with a focus on how environmentally sustainable approaches can create value for the firm. The course explores trends in corporate practices and students consider specific examples of such practices to examine the interactions between the firm and the environment. This course has three objectives: to increase students’ knowledge of sustainability practices and their impact on firm performance; to teach students to think strategically and act entrepreneurially on environmental issues; and to help students design business approaches to improve environmental outcomes, while simultaneously creating value.
0.5 Course Unit
Monday 3:30pm-6:29pm
Prof. David Jacoby
MGMT 2240/6240 Leading Leading Across Cultural and Relational Differences
By taking Leading Across Cultural and Relational Differences, students will gain the skills, knowledge, and strategies needed to lead with empathy, authenticity, and inclusivity. The course prepares aspiring leaders to leverage the power of different perspectives and positions them as change agents capable of leading in dynamic and diverse environments. Classes will be experiential and discussion-based, providing a hands-on learning experience. Readings, self-reflection, guest lectures, case studies, and a final individual or team project will also be emphasized.
Thus, by the end of this course, you should be able to:
1. Evaluate the aspects of your identity and personal experiences that shape how you interact and engage with others and lead in organizations
2. Propose ways to enhance your effectiveness as a leader in diverse environments
3. Propose ways to enhance learning and effectiveness and in an organization that is wrestling with leading across cultural and relational differences
0.5 Course Unit
MGMT 2240: Monday/Wednesday 1:45pm-3:14pm
Prof. Stephanie Creary
MGMT 6240: Tuesday/Thursday 3:30pm-4:59pm
Prof. Stephanie Creary
MGMT 6250 Corporate Governance, Executive Compensation and the Board
This course explores the relationships between corporate managers, boards of directors, and investors. We’ll examine board responsibilities such as approving financial statements, evaluating CEO performance, overseeing executive compensation, and planning for succession. While boards are legally bound to represent the interests of equity investors, in the course of carrying out this role they are often called on to respond to the needs of numerous other stakeholders, including customers, employees, government and society at large. In today’s fast paced digital world, reputational risks are high, making sound governance more important than ever. This course combines lectures, guest speakers, case studies, discussions, and in-class workshops. We will review theory and research from fields like finance, sociology, and management to understand governance practices. Real-world case studies will highlight how boards address challenges and respond to crises. The course will also explore how governance structures and stakeholder involvement influence corporate social responsibility and global citizenship.
0.5 Course Unit
Monday/Wednesday 10:15am-11:44am
Prof. Mary Mcdonnell
Monday/Wednesday 1:45pm-3:14pm
Prof. Mary Mcdonnell
MGMT 8710 Advanced Global Strategy
This class is designed to develop world class, globally-minded managers. Many of the most important business issues of today are global in nature. Both “macro” phenomena (e.g. nationalism, protectionism, demographic change) and “micro” trends (e.g. competition within and from emerging markets, distributed talent and innovation, digitization and automation) are inherently international issues. They require firms and managers to think, innovate, and organize globally. This class offers a comprehensive set of tools to evaluate opportunities and challenges in global markets, to leverage cross-country differences to enhance innovation and performance, to manage the complexities of a business spread across multiple countries, and to win against foreign rivals. The course will focus on both the formulation and execution of global strategy, with a heavy emphasis on current events and hands on activities.
This course builds on the global management portion of MGMT 611 or MGMT 612, but taking those classes is not a prerequisite for MGMT 871.
0.5 Course Unit
Monday/Wednesday 10:15am-11:44am from October 20 to December 3
Prof Exequiel Hernandez
MGMT 7860 Reforming Mass Incarceration and the Role of Business
This half-semester course introduces current and future leaders to mass incarceration in the U.S., and its effect on employment and entrepreneurship prospects for formerly incarcerated people. We will explore both the challenges of our correctional system as well as potential solutions. For example, over 600,000 people return home from U.S. prisons each year. For most, the return is short-lived as two-thirds are re-incarcerated within three years of release. We will consider many of the reasons why this occurs, including research indicating that the lack of employment opportunities is a major contributor. We will also hear from those directly impacted by the justice system. By the end of the course, you will be among the more educated leaders not just on mass incarceration, but on how to think about ways that the business community can contribute to the success of those impacted by the criminal justice system. This course will also serve as a pre-requisite for a follow-up experiential course where we will teach business skills and financial acumen justice-impacted people, as well as help with their employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.
0.5 Course Unit
Thursday 3:30pm-6:29pm from October 20 to December 3
Prof. Damon Phillips
NPLD 7890.001 Private Resources for the Public Good: Advanced Topics in Philanthropy
Philanthropy’s ability to advance social change is more essential than ever in an era of dramatic reductions in government funding. Philanthropy plays a unique role in driving change. Unlike business, philanthropy has no requirement to generate financial returns, and unlike government, individual donors and institutional funders are not accountable to a single stakeholder.
Taught by two philanthropic leaders, Eileen Heisman, former CEO of National Philanthropic Trust, and Kat Rosqueta, Founding Executive Director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, Private Resources for the Public Good: Advanced Topics in Philanthropy will ground you in the strategies and tactics philanthropy deploys to drive positive social change. Guides along the way will include guest lecturers who lead organizations ranging from large international foundations to innovative philanthropic institutions committed to social transformation.
Register for this course if you are a graduate or advanced undergraduate student seeking expertise in philanthropy, nonprofits, international NGOs and developmental organizations, and fundraising. Contact Nick Matlin (nmatlin@upenn.edu) with any questions.
0.5 Course Unit
Tuesday 10:15am-11:45am
Eileen Heisman and Kat Rosqueta
OIDD 5250 Thinking with Models: Business Analytics for Energy and Sustainability
Models are lenses. They are instruments with which we view, interpret, and give meaning to data. In this course, students will be exposed to and do work in all phases of the modeling life-cycle, including model design and specification, model construction (including data gathering and testing), extraction of information from models during post-solution analysis, and creation of studies that use modeling results to support conclusions for scientific or decision making purposes. In addition, the course will cover critical assessments of fielded models and studies using them. The course will focus broadly on models pertaining to energy and sustainability. This is not only an inherently interesting and important area, but it is very much a public one.
OIDD3250 is not a prerequisite for this course, but it’s helpful if you have already taken it.
1 Course Unit
Tuesday/Thursday 3:30pm-4:59pm
Prof. Steven Kimbrough