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.”