My name is Amnie Ashour and I am a Biomedical Sciences major. This coming fall will be the start of my fourth and FINAL year at UCF! I hope to be able to give you guys the best first year possible from my end ‐ being its my last! Next stop medical school (fingers crossed!). A little background on me: I graduated from Olympia High School which is right here in Orlando, Florida. Outside of academics I live for the spinning classes at 7 am at the rec and wellness center (which is always more fun with a buddy *wink wink*) I recently picked up the drums which is much harder than I expected… I am adamant to play some of my favorite songs from Dance Gavin Dance. Painting is a long time hobby for me ‐ digital and traditional ‐ I have a few of my favorite pieces on my google drive so don't hesitate if you'd like to see some of my work! Some of favorite classes at UCF are the upper electives like Endocrinology and Molecular Aspects of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (lots of great clinical information that you don't get in your core classes!) I love the elaborate laboratory classes available for biomedical sciences such as quantitative biological methods (Which I TA because its such a fun course) and Experimental Molecular Cell Biology which gives you a chance to work with live mammalian cell cultures ‐ a definite step above the basics. If there's anyone who I recommend to take is Dr. Ahangari! She's a FANTASTIC professor because she teaches you what it takes to be health professional (Nurse, PA, MD, DO etc), and nothing less. Expect to be challenged, her exams are really tough but you're lying if you finish a course of hers and didn't learn a thing. Her classes include Human Physiology, Endocrinology, and Clinical Embryology. Just a reminder, since I started EXCEL as a freshman and now as a Senior in GEMS I regret absolutely nothing ‐ this is such a great social program where you meet interesting people that have the same major as you. Next thing you know you're all taking classes together and planning schedules together. I know I did ‐ I still stay in touch with my GEMS mentee group we were all great friends. It helps you feel like you're a part of a community and belong at UCF. Those kind of relationships, I believe, are essential for incoming freshmen ‐‐ especially when you're a freshman at a university as large as ours. I hope you all can appreciate it and I can't wait to share as much experience as possible this coming Fall.