My major is Microbiology and Molecular Biology and I am currently in my junior year. I finished South Lake High School, in Groveland, FL and joined UCF in 2008. My favorite professor is Dr. Moore, one of the calculus teachers of the EXCEL program. What I loved about Dr. Moore is that he made us feel at ease during class time and he cared whether we learned the material. He even used to tell us math‐related stories in the middle of class to keep our attention. My favorite hobbies are reading, baking, swimming, going to the gym, going to the movies, and hanging out with my friends from school. What I love about the GEMS program is that it gives the opportunity to some of the older EXCEL students to communicate with the EXCEL freshman female students, allowing us to relate to each other. We are able to talk about the difficulties that we face in the pursuit of our STEM dreams and aspirations, and it's nice to know that there are others going through the same tests and trials as I am.