Penn Abroad Ambassador Shivani Desai

First giraffe spotted on our early morning game drive
Wharton '25
Entrepreneurship and Innovation & Finance
PGS: Information Communication Technologies for Development
SA: HEC Paris
dshivani@wharton.upenn.edu
Programs
Penn Global Seminars (PGS) Study Abroad (SA)

Program:

  • PGS: Information Communication Technologies for Development

  • SA: HEC Paris

Ask me about...

  • Applying for a passport on my own on an expedited timeline.

  • Maintaining contact with professionals and students from our site visits to continue conversations and projects around Tech & Finance.

My Experience Abroad:

I never thought a Political Science Global Seminar would fit in with my career goals as a student in Wharton, but I was quickly proven wrong when reading the course description of PGS: Information Communication Technologies for Development. As someone who is heavily involved with Venture Lab at Penn and working with early-stage ventures, I'm interested in startups and technological development. Prior to this course, I had not had the opportunity to explore technological growth and innovation in another country. Africa is a growing hub of tech development, given its youthful population and the emergence of a variety of fintech applications. I was drawn to connect this course to my perspectives in VC, and Professor Grossman's course structure allowed me to research the state of Fintech in Uganda and eventually engage with Fintech startups at HIVE Colab. Right after this course ended, I headed to San Francisco for a VC internship in tech investing, and this course gave me invaluable insights on how tech startups were functioning in the Ugandan economy. Not only that, but being in a class with students in multiple schools and a variety of backgrounds, I was able to supplement my site visits and course learnings with their perspectives on topics such as politics, Machine Learning/AI, international relations, and more. As a direct result of this program, I want to work in tech investing abroad instead of just in the US after graduation.

Other Highlights:

  • Discussing the differences in FinTech between Africa and the US at a startup incubator with a FinTech founder

  • Speeding through Murchison Falls National Park in pursuit of lions as the sun rose right behind our 4-wheeler

  • Starting a conga dance line at a bar with live music playing for one of our guide's birthdays

  • Seeing a series of presentations about AI research projects at Makerere University from peer counterparts that were our age

Quick 0.5 selfie with the group
Jumping for joy in front of the Victoria Nile River
Meeting with university students/faculty
Our trusty van that took us around Kampala
Shivani in Annecy
paris
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