The results are in! Wharton’s second year EMBA class won the battle between the classes in the Philadelphia Marathon challenge.
Despite freezing temperatures and icy patches on the race course, the second year EMBA class racked up the most miles run — 146.7 to be exact — and raised the most money.
Second-year EMBA student and race organizer Seema Prasannakumar, a manager in Price WaterhouseCoopers' Financial Services Risk Management Practice, says that her class raised about $11,000 and also received a few corporate matches, including one from classmate Jason Shapiro’s employer Macquarie which generously matched every dollar the group raised.
As a result, the total fundraising tally for the second years was $22,000, exceeding their $15,000 goal for RHD Career Development Center, which is a Philadelphia-based program that provides job training and placement services for low-income adults.
The first year class “brought it on” as well, providing some tough competition. With 15 runners, they ran 110.5 miles and raised about $13,000 for Breastcancer.org. “We surpassed our goal of $10,000 and we did it without a corporate match,” says first-year EMBA student and race organizer Jennifer Paradis, director of development at Breastcancer.org. “I’m really proud of our team.”
Despite the competitive nature of the event, both classes agreed that there was more bonding than competition at the pre-event spaghetti dinner.”It was nice to interact with the other class and get to know them better,” says first-year EMBA student and race organizer Sarah Sullivan. “There was some trash talking of course, but we were all very excited to be there.”
Sullivan, a program analyst for the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C., adds that her class is already planning a similar challenge for next year’s marathon. “There were people who ran that thought this was one of the best EMBA experiences they’ve had so far and we’re already talking about wanting to do the challenge again next year.”
Paradis confirms, “We will absolutely throw down the gauntlet for the next class!”
To learn more about the marathon challenge, read our blog posting: November 5, 2008