My name is Alayna Kennedy and I’m a second year Civil Engineering major. In 2022, I graduated from Seminole High School in Sanford, Florida. At UCF, one of my favorite classes I’ve taken so far was Introduction to Computer Science with Kyle Dencker, he made it super easy to understand Python as someone who’s never touched code before and it was an interesting class to take. Although Dencker was a great professor, my favorite would have to be Ms. Dunlop-Pyle. Although the work load was a lot since it was a 5 credit class, she truly wants to make sure that everyone in her class is well prepared for future calculus classes so I appreciate the passion she has to teach. I love the GEMs program because it gives me that comfort and support from other girls in majors like mine. I really appreciate the opportunity that I was given to work with a mentor that was in my shoes the previous year so that I can ask for advice, it really helped me become more successful my freshman year and now I’m excited to pass that on to incoming freshman students! Some words of advice that I have is to make sure you have balanced school and social lives, it is really important to prioritize school work, but sometimes we forget that we’re human and need breaks every now and then or else we’ll get burnt out. When I take breaks from my school work, I like having movie nights with my friends, roller skating, and to riding the rollercoasters at Universal.