A quarter-century of supporting Asian Pacific Islander students
This story was originally published on November 26, 2025 in Penn Today.
Writer: Dan Shortridge
Twenty-five years ago, the Pan-Asian American Community House(PAACH) opened its doors as a space to support Penn’s Asian Pacific Islander student communities and anyone interested in their diverse cultures and experiences.
Since then, it has provided both a physical space and a support network for students from Asia and of Asian descent, offering comfort, advice, counseling, food, and just a place to relax.
PAACH is also a place for cultural events and community celebrations, including student mixers, local trips, and workshops covering food, festivals and art. The center also supports events such as Asian Pacific American Heritage Week and groups highlighting music, dance, theatre, and spirituality.
“I think all of the students would agree with me when I say that PAACH is almost like a second home,” says fourth-year Megan Chan, chair of the Asian Pacific Student Coalition. “It’s more than just a cultural center.”
Alumnus Franklin Shen, an early PAACH founder who graduated in 2003, says he welcomed the community atmosphere and support. “I could find food, community, advice, mentorship,” Shen says. “My parents never went to college, so there was information about financial aid, how to navigate university life, how to study. PAACH really helped fill the gaps.”
Career Services Earns Major Accolade on the 2025 Handshake Career Spark Award Winners
Career Services at the University of Pennsylvania has been awarded a place on the list of 2025 Handshake Career Spark Award winners. The accolade is given to contributors who succeed in supporting the next generation of future leaders in their college-to-career transition and encourage the Handshake mission to provide all students the chance to build their desired careers regardless of their background or the school that they attend. The Career Spark Awards (CSAs) recognize top career centers across three categories—student engagement, employer engagement and curation,reporting, analytics, and First Destination Survey (FDS).
A core platform that powers the Career Services office, Handshake is a one-stop shop for students to find jobs, schedule interviews with employers, participate in career fairs, schedule appointments with Career Services advisors, access career resources, and view a calendar of events hosted by our office and employers. The app’s student-friendly design features a front-page feed that displays the most relevant jobs and events, customized for each user. This also allows Career Services to share social media-style content, informing and educating their audience, which includes undergraduate students across all four colleges and graduate and professional students.
- J. Michael DeAngelis, the Senior Associate Director at Career Services who manages communications and technology, conveys his enthusiasm upon receiving the major recognition.
“So excited to be a part of this win! The entire Career Services team works hard to leverage Handshake in serving our students and alumni, maximizing their career outcomes. I’m excited that when it comes to media and technology in the career services space, we lead the way with Handshake as a tremendous ally and partner.”
The award is a testament to Career Services’ commitment to providing consistent, timely, and helpful resources for students to advance their career aspirations. As a career center which not only utilizes digital platforms and media to bring employer access to students but contains a myriad of opportunities for job exploration and preparation, Career Services at Penn stands out as a model of how universities can best be a guiding star for their students.
The recognition comes at an exciting moment for the team as Career Services approaches its 100th anniversary. With this notable spotlight, Career Services at Penn is well-positioned to continue the necessary work of connecting students to tangible, real world career opportunities.
La Casa Latina hosts Phila. high schoolers for Día de los Muertos college readiness event
This story was originally published on November 3, 2025 in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Writer: Liya Ma
On Oct. 30, La Casa Latina hosted a Día de los Muertos event for local high school students to celebrate the holiday and be introduced to college readiness resources.
Held at the ARCH, the event was attended by around 60 high school students from George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science and Howard Furness High School, as well as around 50 Penn community members. The event featured cultural celebrations as well as college insights from current Penn students and Emmanuel Martinez, the associate director of Scholarly & Professional Development at Penn First Plus.
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a tradition celebrated in many Latin American cultures to “commemorate the lives of the dearly departed and to welcome the return of their spirits,” according to an article by the National Museum of the American Latino.
The Penn event, titled “Remembering Our Past, Building Our Futures,” began with an introductory presentation by Krista Cortes, the director of La Casa Latina. El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, a Mexican American-focused student organization, and Istmo y Vos, a Central American-focused student organization, sent volunteers to the event to talk with high school students.
Herinah Asaah, C’26: Empowered to Uplift, Driven to Change
This story was originally published on September 2, 2025 in The Penn Fund.
Writer: Maria Provenzano
Growing up, Herinah Asaah, C’26, and her family relocated frequently due to her mother’s career in the military, living in places as widespread as California, New York, and Hawaii.
While Herinah has always enjoyed the adventure of visiting new locales and meeting new people, Penn has offered her a stable home base to explore, learn, and engage with the community. “Starting at the University and knowing I would be here, in the same spot, for four years was really exciting for me. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know every part of campus, and my internships and jobs have allowed me to connect with different neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia, as well.”
Through working with West Philadelphia children in a nonprofit summer camp and mentoring local public-school students with the Netter Center, Herinah developed a passion for educational equity. “In these organizations, I’ve been able to examine the gaps in education systems and how a lack of resources and funding directly impacts the children in these communities.” This work has inspired Herinah to focus on education as a human right, to ensure equal access for children across the globe.
While serving as the first-year coordinator for the Penn Association for Gender Equity (PAGE), Herinah was tasked with planning a pre-orientation program for incoming students and a fall semester fellowship. Through a Reunion gift from the Class of 1982 and additional direct gifts from the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women, PAGE received the funding required to successfully execute all aspects of the program and fellowship. The impact of this generosity made a lasting impression on Herinah, and allowed her to witness firsthand the power of alumni philanthropy: “I was very inspired by the support we received from donors. When I’m an alum, I plan to give back to ensure students like me can get the most out of their education and experience at Penn.”
Helping Hands
This story was originally published on August 22, 2025 in The Pennsylvania Gazette.
Writer: Caren Lissner
When Jonathan Muruako C’17 Gr’20 Gr’21 GM’22 SPP’24 applied to Penn from his small-town Mississippi high school, he didn’t know much about the University or the college application process and didn’t have anyone around with the experience to help.
He’d never even visited the East Coast or been on a plane.
“I was in a pretty low-performing high school,” he says. “We didn’t have any AP courses. I just applied to all of the Ivy League schools. Everyone at my school, including my guidance counselor, thought [Penn] was Penn State. No one had anything to say.”
Muruako’s parents were Nigerian immigrants, and his father died when he was young. But his mom encouraged him to work hard. He became first in his class, started a recycling program at his high school, and worked bagging groceries.
A decade later, with several University degrees under his belt, he’s an entrepreneur in Philadelphia leading a startup called Fitalyst, which provides online tools to empower students confronting the kinds of challenges he faced to “better allocate their time, effort, and campus resources.” And he’s part of a growing Penn network designed to build community and support among first-in-their-family college students and alumni who lack the resources that some Ivy Leaguers take for granted. When a student faces a family emergency, isn’t sure how to pursue graduate school, or can’t afford housing for an internship, this network is providing mentorships and resources to meet needs that have always been there but were largely hidden in the past.
Muruako falls into a category described as first-generation, low-income (FGLI, pronounced “fig-lee”) at the University, a demographic that in 2024–25 included approximately 22 percent of undergraduates on campus, according to Marc Lo, executive director of Penn First Plus, a program founded in 2019 to assist FGLI students with a hand up toward independence and security.
In the years since, the program has continued to evolve with a growing network of faculty, mentors, and alumni who want to make sure anyone trying to follow in their footsteps isn’t alone. Penn First Plus, or P1P, defines itself broadly as “the hub of University efforts to enhance the academic experiences of students who are the first in their families to pursue a four-year baccalaureate degree or come from modest financial circumstances.” But because other students may lack resources for a variety of reasons, the program offers help to any student who similarly struggles with a gap in resources.
Muruako—a biological basis of behavior (now neurology) major who finished his undergraduate degree before P1P was in place, but wishes he’d been able to call on that kind of help—says he’s seen Penn First Plus become crucial in identifying unmet needs. He cochairs the Penn First Plus Alumni Association as a way to use the knowledge amassed during what he estimates are 22 semesters spent at the University to benefit current and future students. The alumni group seeks to “advocate for more visibility and representation of the P1P experience on University alumni leadership boards and governance” and to “build and maintain a supportive network for social and economic advancement through knowledge-sharing and mentorship.”
Penn Glee Club performs in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Beijing
This story was originally published on June 23rd 2025 in Penn Today.
Writer: Louisa Shepard
The Penn Glee Club performed at the famous Suntory Hall in Tokyo, an art gallery in Hong Kong, and the U.S. embassy in Beijing during a 12-day tour of Asia. Forty members went on the tour, including 25 singers, eight band members, and seven technical crew.
The Penn Glee Club sang the traditional “Red and Blue” at Commencement on Franklin Field and then headed to the airport, arriving in Tokyo to sing that same song and many others at the famous Suntory Hall.
“We even managed to teach everyone the arm wave. Some of the Penn alums in the audience were able to help,” says Sam Scheibe, who is completing his first year as director. “Getting off the plane and then going and performing in Suntory Hall was such an amazing feeling, to realize that we had come so far. Our whole year seemed to culminate at that moment.”
Tokyo was the first stop in a 12-day tour that also took a group of 25 singers, eight band members, and seven technical crew to perform at an art gallery in Hong Kong and the United States embassy in Beijing to perform. They also experienced the cultures in each country, such as taking a bullet train to Kyoto in Japan, hiking the Hong Kong Trail, and walking along the Great Wall of China.
The Glee Club, which typically does an international tour every other year, last traveled to Asia in 2019, before becoming fully gender inclusive in 2021 after 159 years of only male singers. Rising fourth-year Hailey Tobin planned the tour, working closely with alumni to make connections and trip decisions.
“It was really amazing to be able to perform and see how engaged the Penn alumni were in Asia,” says Julia Gauffreau, a rising fourth-year and the incoming Club president. Gauffreau, from Media, Pennsylvania, is in the Vagelos Program in the Molecular Life Sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences, studying biophysics, biochemistry, and chemistry.
A cross-cultural collaboration
The Tokyo performance was a collaboration with the Wagner Society Choirs of Japan’s Keio University. They previously collaborated in 2019 with their all-male choirs. “This year was incredibly special because we had the full range of voices,” says Kyne Wang, outgoing Glee Club president, who graduated in May from the Vagelos Life Sciences and Management Program, a dual-degree program in the School of Arts & Sciences and the Wharton School. “It was a dream come true to be able to perform on this tour.”
Each of the choirs did a 50-minute set before singing one piece together, “If Music Be the Food of Love” by David Dickau. “It was a really powerful experience to have the singers from both groups perform together,” Scheibe says.
My parents were immigrants, and I’m the first in my family to graduate college — but I won’t be the last
A daughter of Peruvian emigres and a first-generation student who graduated Penn last week offers a simple message to other Latin members of the Class of 2025: Never give up.
Dancing saved me.
In salsa, I found joy, healing, and freedom. In the loneliest days when I first came to the University of Pennsylvania — the oldest daughter of two immigrant parents and the first to attend college — it was in dance where I rediscovered myself, where I felt free, where I knew — I was meant to be here.
Like so many other students of Latin American descent, my graduation is the culmination of a long journey. My parents left everything behind in Perú — their home, sus familias, their language, their roots — all for the hope of something better. Not just for themselves, but for the generations to come.
And that sacrifice … I will never forget. In my darkest moments, when I felt like giving up, when I was too tired to keep going, I thought of them.
Of their strength. Of their courage. Of their love.
And it reminded me: that strength also lives in me.
I am a first-generation, low-income college student. La primera de mi familia en graduarse de la universidad. But I know I won’t be the last. Because behind me a whole generation of dreamers, fighters, and leaders is coming.
I come from Paterson, N.J. — a city with many difficulties, but also with a lot of life, a lot of culture, and a lot of dignity. The kind of place people overlook. But it built me.
To think that someone like me could make it from there to here — to the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy league institution — still feels surreal.
The Class of 2025 made it here against all odds.
We graduated from high school during a pandemic — a time filled with fear, uncertainty, and pain. The world was dark. But we kept going. And now, we’re graduating into another kind of darkness.
A world that questions our worth. With policies that make us feel like we don’t belong.
A country where immigrant communities are under attack.
But let me tell you something:
We are still here. We are graduating. And that is resilience.
This diploma is more than a piece of paper.
It’s tangible evidence of every sleepless night.
Of every hidden tear.
Of every sacrifice made for our families.
Of every time we felt we couldn’t, but did it anyway.
At Penn, I’ve had the privilege to wear many hats and take part in many student organizations post-pandemic.
But let me be real with you.
There were moments I wanted to quit. Moments where I questioned my worth, my character, my light.
But even then … I kept going. Because I know who I am. I poured love, grace, and dedication into everything I touched. Because my parents didn’t raise me to be small. Because they didn’t raise me to quit. They raised me to believe in myself. In my character. In my dignity. In my resilient Latin nature. And despite the hatred, I kept going.
And to those who tried to turn off my light … here I am. Shining brighter than ever.
Because the struggle, el amor, and the faith that brought me here — they don’t fade. They just grow.
But I could not have done this without all of the people who stayed and loved me when I couldn’t love myself. To those who listened when I couldn’t speak. To those who reminded me I was never truly alone.
Class of 2025 — we did this. We are the first class to fully experience college life post-pandemic. We brought life back to this campus. We filled the gap that was left to make sure our Latino community was still present. We brought back organizations, started new ones, and created community in places that weren’t made for us. We carried the legacies left behind and built our own.
And no matter what the world tries to tell us — we know our worth. So as we step into this next chapter, I want to leave you with this:
Be bold. Be you. Confía en ti. This world needs people like us — who love hard, who work harder, who know struggle, but never give up.
Use this education — this privilege — to make change. To open doors for others. To build the world our parents dreamed of when they crossed borders and oceans.
To our parents: This achievement is as much yours as it is ours. Thank you for sacrificing, for enduring, for never giving up.
Thank you for teaching us to dream.
Thank you for loving us beyond belief.
They tried to make us feel like we didn’t belong. But here we are. Graduating. Fighting. Living.
And dancing, too.
Sandra María Navarro Davalos graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania last week with a bachelor of arts in communication concentrating in advocacy & activism, with minors in fine arts and Latinx & Latin American Studies. A native of Paterson, N.J., she is enrolled in the master’s program at Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice. This essay is adapted from her remarks at Penn’s Latinx graduation ceremony.
Penn Career Services podcast recognized nationally as a Top 10 Best Career Podcast for Students
The University of Pennsylvania’s CS Radio podcast has been recognized nationally by Million Podcasts, earning a place on three of the outlet’s 2025 “Best Of” lists. The show ranked among the Top 10 Best Career Podcasts for Students, the Top 25 Best University Podcasts, and the Top 100 Best Career Exploration Podcasts overall — highlighting its growing influence as a trusted resource for students navigating the world of work.
Hosted by Michael DeAngelis and Natty Leach from Penn’s Career Services office, CS Radio offers listeners a weekly dose of career advice, professional development insights, and practical tips delivered with wit and expertise. Since its launch, the podcast has aimed to demystify the career process and provide support for students at every stage of their journey, from choosing a major to landing a first job or internship.
With more than ten seasons under their belt, DeAngelis and Leach have built a dedicated audience that extends far beyond campus. Their recent recognition is a testament to the podcast’s consistency, relevance, and genuine connection with student listeners. As higher education increasingly turns to digital platforms to engage and inform, CS Radio stands out as a model of how universities can meet students where they are.
The recognition comes at an exciting moment for the team, as Penn’s Career Services recently launched a new media studio — opening the door to even more innovative content creation. With a national spotlight now shining brighter than ever, CS Radio is well-positioned to continue evolving as a leading voice in the student career space.
Performer, biomedical engineer, and soon-to-be graduate
This story was originally published on May 13th 2025 in Penn Today.
Writer: Louisa Shepard
Photographer: Eric Sucar; Scott Spitzer
Graduating fourth-year Jordyn Harris is pursuing a career in engineering and medicine while also dedicating herself to the performing arts.
Mixing it up is what graduating fourth-year Jordyn Harris likes best.
At Penn she has been an applied science in biomedical sciences major while also pursuing a major in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies, and she has had a work-study job in performing arts and another job as a researcher at a hospital. Harris has also been on stage as a dancer and behind the scenes running tech for student shows while also volunteering as an adviser and mentor for engineering students and a member of a performing arts senior society, as well as a sorority for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
“I’m a STEM girl who does performing arts; I like the mix,” Harris says. “I’m always doing something. But I love doing all of the things that I do.”
From Baltimore, Harris will graduate this month with a bachelor’s degree of applied science in biomedical sciences from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences with a second major in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies from the College of Arts and Sciences.
“I’m doing a little bit of everything, and that’s what I think I’ll do with my career generally,” she says. “I want to dive into STEM and medicine but also performing arts as an outlet for my creative side, being in both, and having them interweave with volunteering.”
Harris helped other students as a volunteer orientation peer advisor and an advisor through the Advanced Women of Women in Engineering Preorientation program.
“The thing that is always surprising about Jordyn is how dedicated she is in terms of what she commits to. There’s a sense of responsibility that she has with every role that she’s taken on,” says Sonya Gwak, who until recently was director of student life and undergraduate education, but now is director of global academic programs at Penn Engineering.
“Jordyn’s information has always been reliable because she’ll do her homework and make sure that what she says is accurate. People can depend on her,” Gwak says, including making sure every first-year student is registered for classes. “Because it’s completely voluntary and it because it is a huge undertaking, having somebody like Jordyn in that role is invaluable.”
Harris encouraged engineering students to do performing arts and clubs and other creative pursuits even if that wasn’t what they planned for their careers. “Finding what makes you you, and doing those things in the midst of your career, in the midst of your academics, is key,” she says.
Performing Arts
Since her first year at Penn, Harris has been a work-study student at the Platt Student Performing Arts House helping to manage programming, as well as scheduling rehearsals and performances for student groups. Her interest in performing arts began with ballet when she was about 4 years old. She continued through high school where she played the violin and piano and also dove into theater arts, on stage and behind the scenes.
“If you don’t directly ask her or see her doing good things on campus, you won’t know because she is very humble,” says Laurie McCall, director of the Platt House, noting the many leadership roles Harris has taken on, including mentoring new students as they navigate their performing arts experience.
Harris won the Platt House Impact Award that goes “to a student who goes above and beyond the scope of their campus responsibilities” to represent student performing arts “through continual service, model leadership, and general goodwill,” McCall says. “She is a joy to have in our circle.”
Since Harris’s second year at Penn she has been behind the scenes for many student performing arts productions, including iNtuitions Experimental Theater and several Theater Arts Council shows.
“I’ve done pretty much all sides of tech: lights, sound, stage managing both theater and dance,” she says. “I’m also producing, making sure everything is managed the way it should be, things are getting done, all the deadlines are met.”
Her third year she joined Onda Latina as a dancer and usually performs salsa but also mambo fusion, hip-hop, and bachata, working with student choreographers.
STEM
While involved in high school theater, she also was taking all the advanced placement science classes. “Growing up I always wanted to be an engineer,” inspired by her father, she says. “I think that sparked me; I’ve always been good at math, so engineering was my way to go.”
She decided she also wanted to study medicine. Harris chose Penn, she says, because of the bioengineering program and the opportunities to volunteer at hospitals.
Harris completed pre-med requisites, including biology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, chemistry, and physics. She also chose bioengineering design courses, learning how to design medical devices. In one class she worked with doctors at the Perelman School of Medicine “learning about the different devices that they’ve created and learning how to build devices around patients.”
She completed most of her bioengineering classes in her first two years and then took gender studies courses in her third and fourth years. “I really like the breadth of gender studies at Penn because every class is different. I learn something new with all of them,” she says.
“I want to be able to apply those into engineering, into medicine: how different cultures, different races, have been influenced throughout history,” she says. “Especially in the medical field, coming at it from both an engineering STEM and a gender studies perspective.”
For nearly a year Harris has been a paid undergraduate student researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) working with Jalaj Maheshwari in the Center for Injury Research and Prevention. The prior two years she was an undergraduate student researcher with Michelle Johnson in the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at the medical school.
Harris’s thesis for her applied science degree incorporates the work she has been doing at CHOP, which involves running computerized car crash test simulations on child car seats, testing parameters and dimensions of the seats to minimize child injuries in crashes. A subproject of hers is developing a program that manufacturers can use in building the car seats, and to make recommendations to parents to maximize safety.
Penn Alumni recently awarded Harris the 2025 Association of Latino Alumni Student Leadership Award from the James Brister Society.
Looking Ahead
This summer, Harris will be continuing her research at CHOP, with goals of publishing a paper and presenting at conferences. She then is planning to take two gap years, to explore abroad, work, volunteer in hospitals and in theater, and apply to medical schools. She is leaning towards a career in orthopedics. “I’m interested in robotics and prosthetics,” she says.
Gwak says Harris will be greatly missed when she graduates since she has been “a constant part of the community” with a “quiet leadership” that “exemplifies building relationships.” At Penn for 32 years, Gwak says Harris is “one of those people that you remember forever. Once you interact with Jordyn, it’s hard to forget her.”
Graduation will be “a bittersweet moment” and no longer being in school is going to be an adjustment, Harris says. “But I’m excited for what the future holds,” she says, adding that she will return to campus to see the student shows. “I’m going to be that alum who comes back.”
Class of 2026 prepares for ‘iconic’ year during annual Hey Day
This story was originally published on May 1st 2025 in Penn Today.
Writer: Jimmy O’Hara
Photographer: Eric Sucar; Scott Spitzer
Marking a 109-year-old tradition, Penn third-year students united to celebrate their rise to fourth-year status.
An ecstatic crowd of third-year students donning red T-shirts, bamboo canes, and mock skimmer hats electrified Penn’s campus on Thursday, May 1, to mark the University’s 109th Hey Day, a yearly tradition—dating back to 1916—that unifies Penn students across space and time. Clear blue skies and warm weather made for a lively mid-morning picnic at High Rise Field by Rodin College House, with hundreds of third-year students gathered to socialize, reconnect, and celebrate their collective transition to fourth-year rank.
As noon approached, the Class of 2026 marched in a grand procession down Locust Walk led by the Penn Band, crossing the Class of 1949 Bridge and parading under a tall balloon arch toward College Green. There, they were greeted first by Vice Provost for University Life Karu Kozuma and then by President J. Larry Jameson. Per tradition, Jameson lightheartedly tested the class with a three-question, pass-fail “exam,” with their correct responses ascending the students to fourth-year status.
“On behalf of the senior class right now, we wish you the best of luck next year,” said 2025 class president Amaan Omer, nodding to his fellow graduating class, which convened on the opposite site of College Green to celebrate the Final Toast. Omer then passed the symbolic fourth-year class gavel to Vedika Jawa, president of the 2026 cohort. “2026 seniors, can I hear you scream?” shouted Jawa to a crowd of her peers erupting with joyful cheer.
“What a special class, and what a special day. Time has flown by—and now, we have one more year,” continued Jawa. “This is our time to leave our legacy at Penn and make the most of every moment. Get ready, because our senior year is going to be iconic.”
As the Penn Band played “The Red and Blue,” some newly-minted fourth-years joined in song before posing for group photos and selfies and signing skimmer hats with Sharpies.
Luiza Louback, an English major in the College of Arts and Sciences from Brazil, marked the occasion alongside her friend, James Vu, an English and sociology major in the College from New Jersey, and her partner, Richard Macedo, a computer science major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science also from Brazil.
“Hey Day, for me, is just a day to celebrate how far we’ve come,” said Louback, noting how special it felt to see her class reunited as one. “I also love the walk, seeing everybody walking together, all the juniors connecting.”
Vu, who befriended Louback through an English study abroad program in London, shared that Hey Day means “continuing tradition,” calling the annual event a “rite of passage.”
Macedo and Louback met during New Student Orientation on their first day of classes at Penn, bonding in part over their shared Brazilian nationality. Three years later, they would spend Hey Day together, commemorating their time at Penn as part of a broader tapestry of tradition.
“Hey Day really is a way for you to include yourself in the Penn community,” said Macedo. “Looking at the old pictures of people going through this same tradition is really fun, and you can really feel part of a big community—not even just the people that are here, [but also] the people that were here, and the people that are going to come here.”