Guillermo A. Romero

Guillermo Romero lived abroad for more than a decade, starting with a Peace Corps stint in Cambodia and shifting to teaching English in Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. When he returned to the United States and took a role in External Affairs at the Wharton School, Guillermo knew he wanted to continue developing a career outside of education—but wasn’t sure yet where his next steps would lead. “I’m not one of those people who just get a degree because it’s a good idea,” he explains. “It has to be connected to something I’m passionate about.” A short-term certificate program seemed like a good opportunity to take advantage of education at Penn without committing to another graduate degree. “The Upskill Certificate caught my eye because it encompasses many different types of courses, and that is something that I wanted to help build my resume and to make me more marketable in the future,” says Guillermo.

The Upskill Certificate offers introductory courses in a wide range of professional applications, including intercultural communication, organizational team culture, and data analytics. Students can tailor the certificate to their career goals by choosing any four of the eligible courses. For Guillermo, that included brushing up on digital skills in DIGC 1200: Digital Literacy and Cultural Change. “We are very much in a digital world, and that’s not going away anytime soon,” he says. “I look at it as familiarizing yourself with the inevitable and building those skills that are going to be in demand now and in the future.” The online courses Guillermo experienced were mostly asynchronous, with content delivered via videos and reading assignments, class discussions conducted on message boards, and instructor feedback mediated through Canvas. “The professors were very accessible overall,” he notes.

The highlight of the certificate, for Guillermo, was LEAD 1010: Leadership Theory, Practice, and Purpose, which helped him identify different styles of leadership he had experienced in his professional life—from transformational leaders to authoritarian and absent leaders. He also gained a firmer understanding of the support roles within a company, such as the middle managers who handle organization processes and personnel to help the executive management drive their vision. Guillermo also completed PROW 1000: Fundamentals of Professional Writing, which he says helped him write concise and effective professional communications, and GLBS 1000: Introduction to Global Studies, which provided a big-picture perspective on his experiences living internationally using history, politics, economics, and cultural studies.

The flexible curriculum of the online Upskill Certificate also allowed Guillermo to choose courses that suited his schedule as a full-time employee with a growing family. For example, he was very interested in data analytics but assessed that the introductory course would require more time than he could spare as he was expecting his first child. “Manage your time effectively, and be realistic about the time that you need to do the assignments and still be active at work and part of your family at the same time,” he advises. “The bulk of people taking the certificate courses are all working professionals and adults, so don’t pull all-nighters as if you’re back in undergrad.” Balancing work, family, and school will look different for everyone, he observes; for Guillermo, the ideal balance entails spending two or three hours on homework at night, after his child goes to sleep.

As Guillermo concluded his certificate program, he identified his next academic challenge: the Executive Master of Public Administration at Penn’s Fels Institute of Government. “I’m very much interested in program management and data analytics, and while I lived abroad for many years, I never really took courses in public management and international relations,” reflects Guillermo. “The Executive MPA program allows me to gain those practical skills.” In addition to courses in broadly applicable topics such as Negotiations, the option to complete a capstone project by working with a government agency appealed to Guillermo. And, like the Upskill Certificate, the Executive MPA program offers flexibility: courses meet online weekly—using the Canvas platform that is familiar to Guillermo from Penn LPS Online courses—and gather on campus twice a month for on-site weekend sessions. “It may seem like a lot, but it allows you to build a relationship with your cohort members. It’s a very intimate class setting, about 30-35 students in the classroom,” he adds. Last fall, he traveled with his cohort to visit the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC for a networking event with Fels alumni working in the federal government.

To his fellow working professionals who may be considering a return to the classroom, Guillermo urges the importance of a growth mindset. “Always be learning, so that you don’t stay stagnant and you’re always developing your skills,” he says. And for students who want to unlock their next career move but aren’t sure where to begin, “I would definitely recommend the Upskill Certificate if you want to evolve your skill set,” he says. “And it’s a certificate from an Ivy League institution. That, in itself, holds sway.”