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Hey mentees! My name is Shirley Thelusma and I'm a sophomore at the University of Central Florida. In 2014, I graduated from Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School in Miami. In high school, I ran both track and cross country. I am not a student athlete in college, but I do continue to work out and stay healthy. You just might catch me running around an Orlando neighborhood one morning. I am a biology major and my favorite class so far has been, you guessed it, biology! Biology 1 was well taught by my Professor, Pamela Thomas. Her class made me assure myself that this is the major for me. I decided to become a GEMS mentor because I love to help people who have been through what I've been through. What we all have in common is we were all once college freshman. I want to guide my mentees and help them transition from high school to UCF. I am excited to be your mentor for the upcoming year and help y'all with things that people helped me with when I was a freshman, and things they didn't help me with. I have a few words of advice to share with my mentees. First, learn to manage your time early on in the semester. When you find yourself trying to fit in classes, studying, club meetings, working out, and spending time with friends all at once it becomes overwhelming. Plan out your week so you know in advance what you have time for and what you don't. Another tip is to take advantage of the resources available to you as a knight, especially the free ones! Some of the free resources are scantrons, membership to the UCF gym, and a day at Islands of Adventure reserved just for knights. Don't let them pass you by! Lastly, don't let the huge school population intimidate you. Talk to the stranger sitting next to you in class, say hi to the bus driver, and visit your teacher in office hours. Don't always think of the many, but think of the one. I'll leave y'all with a quote. “”Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.”” ‐D.L. Moody