Hello! My name is Nickayla Tait and I am a Biomedical Sciences major on the Pre-medical track with a minor in biology and health sciences. I graduated from Piper High School, and I am now a Sophomore. 

Here at UCF, I have had the honor of taking Calculus II, Biology I, and English II, which I would have to say have been my favorite classes by far. Although they are all different, they were all taught by amazing professors with stellar teaching skills. In the beginning, I was very scared to take Calculus II, but as I got familiarized with the class, I began to love it because I began to see it as 1 big problem-solving class. Biology I was also one of my favorites because it was mainly about biological functions of the body, which interested me a lot since I have an interest in medicine and the human body. Finally, English II. Believe it or not, I despise English, but my professor was amazing at making hard tasks seem small and even made our final report unique, by making it a website, which I thought was really cool.

At first, I was a bit hesitant to become a STEM Ambassador because I had never heard about the position before and I thought you had to be someone who was well versed in all aspects of STEM in order to take on the role. However, I did a little research on what STEM Ambassadors actually do at UCF, and I discovered that being a STEM Ambassador was something that I was interested in. Essentially, I learned that STEM Ambassadors are individuals who simply express their love for STEM through events, like STEM day and volunteering at schools to get K-12 students to become interested in STEM, which is something I fully support. Back home, I realized that many students struggled in STEM classes, especially math and science, which led me to become a tutor, especially for math classes, so that I could help to bridge gaps students had in their STEM education. Personally, I believe that getting students excited about STEM topics and classes can gravely improve the future and help better our world, so I decided, the best way that I can get students to feel as passionately about STEM as I do, would be by becoming a STEM Ambassador.

Yes, it’s true, STEM classes are hard and will leave us with a plethora of questions, but if we aren’t curious or questioning what we are doing, we are not learning anything. But there are times when I want to get away from thinking and questioning things, which I do by reading books, going to the gym, playing or watching soccer games, and watching a Netflix series that I find interesting.