WHARTON TRAINING RETAIL EXECS OF FUTURE.(University of Pennsylvania. Wharton School of Business offers retail trade education)

Byline: Sharon Edelson

NEW YORK - Elizabeth Schweitzer is the type of young person the retail industry wants to recruit and nurture.

A senior at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, she will graduate in May with a bachelor of science degree in economics. She has focused on retailing through the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative, a curriculum established in 2003 through a $10 million gift from the former president of Kohl's, who graduated from Wharton in 1956.

Schweitzer, who has dreamed of a retailing career since she was a 13-year-old salesgirl at a Larchmont, N.Y., children's boutique, took courses on supply chain management, merchandising, buying and store design. Her senior thesis was a comparative analysis of Target, Kohl's and J.C. Penney.

"I have a lot of mentors who are in the upper echelons of retail management," Schweitzer said. "I've learned from them that's it's really important to be a great merchant, so I'm starting the executive training program at Bloomingdale's in June. Eventually, I'd like to run a department store or specialty chain."

Contrast Schweitzer's experience with that of another Wharton alum, Brendan Hoffman, class of '97. Hoffman, the president and chief executive officer of Neiman Marcus Direct, didn't know what he wanted to do when he graduated and fell into retailing after a friend suggested he join the May Co. training program.

"When I went to Penn people probably didn't think of retail as a career," Hoffman said. "They saw it as more of an occupation. There was no curriculum for retail then. I graduated and went to May Co. with no preparation in terms of a retail background. As I made this my career I started looking to see where there might be a curriculum to prepare someone. I was thrilled when Jay Baker and his wife, Patty, donated the money to Wharton."