Mentor Biography

My name is Brianna Lewis. I am a third year (Junior) Molecular Microbiology major. I graduated from Timber Creek High School here in Orlando, FL back in 2021. My favorite class here was Overview of Select Medical Careers with Dr. Kyle Riding because it aided in creating a turning point in my life. It was there that I discovered that I didn’t have a passion for medical school, a passion I had since I was about 8 years old, and instead wanted to attend grad school. So far, my favorite professor is Dr. Mary Tripp. She is one of the lead faculty members of the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) located in Trevor Colbourn Hall, and I took her Intro to Research course in the Fall of 2022. Dr. Tripp is very kind, is always open to help, and is easy to talk to. One thing about me is that I love to help and give advice to others. I decided to join the COMPASS family as a mentor because I wanted to be able to guide new UCF students through one of the most stressful years of their life. College is already hard, so why should most of your stress be on choosing your major? One of many pieces of advice I’ll give is to work on controlling procrastination habits. As someone with a Ph.D. in Procrastination, I’ve learned that it has gotten me nowhere and only leads to the worst possible outcomes. No one is holding your hand through college, so if you know yourself to be a big-time procrastinator, work on changing your life around. Speaking of knowing yourself, some things that I like to do in my spare time are drawing and watching TV. My favorite show of all time is Stranger Things and yes, I would love to meet more fans. I tend to be antisocial, but when I’m around friends, I could be the most social in the group.