Hello! My name is Isabella Marie Polvinale, and I am a second year Mechanical Engineering major with a Mathematics minor. I am from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and graduated from Fort Lauderdale Highschool in May of 2025. My favorite class has been Calculus 2 with Lori Dunlop-Pyle because I loved learning about new integration techniques and polar regions! If you’re ever bored, I totally recommend looking up ‘MIT Integration Bee’ and doing some of the problems the competitors did, a lot of my math intuition was developed in Professor Pyle’s class and supported me with my personal goal of solving the MIT Integration Bee qualifying problems. Professor Pyle always made sure to explain not only how to solve a problem, but also why it works and she was always attentive to the class. I decided to become a mentor due to my experience being a mentee in GEMS. I always felt supported and knew I had someone to go to if I had questions about anything, I would love the opportunity to be that person for others. If I had one piece of advice, I would say that college is different than high school all around! Sometimes something that used to work for you won’t work anymore, be it academic or socially. In these moments it’s important to adapt to your surroundings by coming up with new techniques to problem solve. When I’m not in school I love to read, play Bassoon and Saxophone, and play video games. My favorite book series is Red Rising by Pierce Brown, my favorite video game is Stardew Valley or The Last of Us 2, and my favorite piece to play is Beethoven’s Symphony No.5. I am so excited for this school year!