My name is Avril Elmer, and I will be a third-year student at UCF majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I graduated from Crooms Academy of Information Technology in my hometown of Sanford, FL in 2023. I don’t really have a favorite class per se. Classes get progressively harder, though some class content was interesting like learning about graphing 3D shapes in Calculus 3, learning about how electricity works through Physics 2 and Principles of Electrical Engineering, how bridges stabilize forces through Statics, and making programs in C Programming that work. Then, of course, there are the non-major specific fun classes such as Communications and Cinema Survey. I had a lot of good professors here at UCF which helped me through some of the tougher classes. I really liked Dr. Zhongzhou Chen, who I had for Physics 1, as he was very enthusiastic with how he taught the class. Even though it was an online course, my English 2 professor, Loren Cooper, had supportive and fun style with how he structured his course content and made it more bearable to go through all that writing and write that big final essay. I originally got involved in GEMS as a freshman because I saw that I could meet other girls who were in STEM and it was awesome because I really liked speaking with my mentor, interacting with my peers, and the opportunities that GEMS had to offer. Now, I’m excited to be going into my second year of being a GEMS mentor and aid freshmen with a similar experience I was given. As a mentor, I expect to interact and advise my mentees to the best of my abilities. All that I expect in return is that mentees be at least somewhat responsive and notify me if they cannot make it to meetings. I am also always free to just talk about random things as well. Some things I do in my free time is listen to music, draw, and ice skate.  

Words of advice: Take advantage of the free bus system for students! It’s helpful for getting around campus fast and it saves you on gas if you live on off campus housing!