Hi! My name is Bryanna Price, and I am the GEMS Lead Mentor for this year! This is my 4th year at UCF as a Mechanical Engineering major. I graduated from Fort Pierce Westwood Academy in Fort Pierce, Florida in 2022 and had the rare honor of giving a Valedictorian speech to my class. My favorite class so far has been Mechatronics because it allows you to get hands-on experience with Arduino programming and controls. This class has deepened my passion for robotics and will be very useful in the themed entertainment industry which is my primary career interest. My favorite professor would have to be Dr. Zaurin who taught Statics in my freshman year. He is by far the most dedicated professor I’ve had, and he really cares about your success in his class. Classes were always interesting and worth showing up to with his enthusiastic demeanor and unique teaching style.

My involvement in GEMS started when I was a mentee, and I decided to become a mentor because of the amazing experience I had in my mentee group. Last year, I dabbled in the COMPASS mentoring program as the COMPASS Lead Mentor, and now the GEMS Lead Mentor for my final year as an undergraduate. A piece of advice I would give to incoming freshmen is to not be afraid to get involved on campus. Start small by attending a few club meetings that interest you, while making sure to emphasize more focus on your studies and foundational classes such as math. Having a strong foundation is going to help you significantly with your upper-level classes. It is important to build good study habits early-on so you can get through those classes that require more effort and time.

In my free time I like to visit the theme parks, hang out with friends and family, work on personal projects, and build puzzles to destress.