Profile

My name is Kohen Shriner, I am a Biomedical Science major here at UCF. When I first started here at UCF I was an engineering major, but ultimately came to the decision that medicine was the right path for me. This fall I will be a senior and will be completing my last couple semesters of my undergrad. Then after that starting medical school (D.O.), hopefully. I graduated from Oasis Charter High School in Cape Coral, Florida in 2015. One of my favorite classes at UCF so far has been Social Psychology. As a part of this class I had to do a weekend long social experiment where all my peers and I had to come together and succeed in a simulated society. During this experiment we could observe all the different psychology theories first hand in an applied fashion. It is an experience I will never forget. My favorite professor at UCF so far has, conveniently, is Dr. Janowsky who I took for Social Psychology and General Psychology. You can tell when a professor really loves to teach and help you learn while making sure everyone is still having fun at the same time. Dr. Janowsky embodies this. Every class with her was educational and entertaining. As a freshman, I was not in the COMPASS program, but looking back now I can tell I would have benefited greatly from it. As I mentioned before, I was engineering freshman year, and now I am Biomedical Sciences. I wish I had someone there alongside me to help me make this decision faster and easier. I also wish I had done it, so I could branch out of my shell and meet new people to form lifelong friendships with. These couple of points are what make me so excited to be a mentor and help the incoming COMPASS freshman start out on the right foot in their college careers. In my free time I like to eat food, exercise, stress about school, daydream, and play video games.

If I could give any advice to the incoming COMPASS freshman: do what you are passionate about, not what people tell you to do. I was always told that I am good at math, so I should be an engineer, but that is not true. After changing majors, I discovered this newfound passion for medicine that keeps me motivated even today to keep pressing on. Follow your heart and put in the effort and everything will turn out just how you want.