My name is Delaney Fuchswanz, and I am a Biomedical Sciences major on the pre-medical track. This will be my second year at UCF, but my fourth and final year of my undergraduate degree! I am from Okeechobee, Florida, so I was able to participate in dual enrollment and graduate with my Associate of Arts degree in Preprofessional Biology at the same time I graduated high school. I went to a small private school in Okeechobee for my first two years of high school and became homeschooled for the last two years to be able to complete my AA degree at Indian River State College. My favorite class during my time at UCF so far has most definitely been Immunology. I loved learning about the defense mechanism that the immune system uses to attack different pathogens that cause us harm. If you find immunology to be an interesting topic, I definitely recommend it even for non-medical majors. My favorite professor at UCF so far has been Professor Weigel, who was my professor for Immunology. Professor Weigel always asked questions in class that would almost always show up on his exams, so it was reassuring that you had an idea of what material to study. He also always made sure you understood what you got wrong on an exam, so you wouldn’t make the same mistake on the next one.

I decided to become a mentor for the WiSTEM program because I personally know how hard my transition was when I moved to UCF, and I often think about how much easier that transition would have been if I had someone to rely on for advice and talk through my worries/fears with. I also joined WiSTEM as a mentor hoping to gain leadership skills and make new connections, which is something I hope all of the mentees can gain from the program as well! A few things I like to do in my free time aside from school are go to the beach, play volleyball, and hang out with friends. Some words of advice for the WiSTEM students is to always keep an open mind and give everything a fair chance because something that is uncomfortable at first could actually have a huge impact on your future. A saying my family has repeated to me multiple times is that “growth is uncomfortable,” which has really been true for me because most of the times I am placed in an uncomfortable situation, I come out with more knowledge than before and feel like I have truly grown from the experience.