Hello! I am Brooke Ferrara and I am a Mechanical Engineering Major with the goal of working in the Themed Entertainment Industry. This is my second year here at UCF, having started in the summer of 2022 after I graduated from University High School in Orange City in the same year. My favorite class at UCF has been Intro to Programming which is the Python course. It was my first course here at UCF and I had the most fun with it as I constantly saw it as a puzzle I needed to figure out. The professor I had made it engaging and it was definitely a class I would take again in a heartbeat. However, my favorite professor is my Calculus 2 professor Dunlop-Pyle. The class itself was difficult but looking back on it I can tell that she did her best to make sure we as students understood the topics and made it easier to pass the class because of it. I recommend her to anyone taking calculus 2 who is worried about the professor’s options. Luckily, she was an EXCEL professor and she became one of the reasons why I appreciate EXCEL as a program. The factors that made me want to join EXCEL were the research benefits, however, the reason why I am continuing EXCEL is because of the community it creates. Continuing this program I hope to develop more friendships and get involved more in the community. Since relationships are so important to me, my favorite thing to do is spend time with my friends and family. Whether it’s at a theme park or just quality time at home, is when I have the most fun. If I do need alone time, watching TV, build little wooden buildings, and sometimes shopping.

The best advice I could give someone coming into EXCEL is to not be afraid to make friends and to not be afraid to fail. STEM is a hard career choice and I would not have made it through some of my classes if it were not for the friends I made helping me. And I soon realized that mistakes are a part of life, and we need to learn from them for them to matter.