My name is Emily Karwacki, I'm a sophomore biology major on the pre‐veterinary track here at UCF, and I graduated from Coral Glades High School in Coral Springs, Florida. So far my favorite course has been statistics (STA2023) with Professor Kelcey Ellis; when I went into the course I thought it was going to be boring and useless and I actually ended up learning a lot, loving statistics, and becoming friends with the professor. I also took biology 1 with Professor Christa Dierckson my first semester and I loved having her as a professor because she explained everything really clearly and connected what we were learning to recent scientific discoveries which kept me more aware of the scientific community. I decided to become a GEMS mentor because I wanted to offer other women what my mentor offered me: support, advice, and experience. I expect to offer my experiences to you so you can learn from them, and to answer any questions you may have about life and academics at UCF. My advice to you is to get out and involved whenever and wherever you can; find things you like to do and people who like to do the same things and your time here will not only be so much easier but it will be the time of your life! In my free time I enjoy reading, watching TV/movies with friends, surfing, and dancing. On any given day I can usually be found either in the library studying, sitting outside reading, or running around with a group of friends just having fun.