 Hi, I'm Mackenzie Plyman. I went to Hewitt Trustful High School, so I'm from Trustful Alabama. I'm a junior and I'm majoring in nursing on the pre-med track. Growing up, family has always been super important to me and being involved in my community has always been really important to me. So when it came to my senior year about to start college, it was really important that I found a place that was close to home but also felt like my home away from home. For me, UA's perfect distance from home has the perfect college experience and when I came on my tour, I immediately thought at home. Everyone was so kind, so encouraging, so sweet, and it just felt right. Before coming to college, I'd say I was a pretty shy person, but college has really made me come out of my comfort zone. One of the most rewarding things for me so far has been what's called the Emerging Scholars Program. And with that, I've had so many opportunities. I've been able to publish my own research and be a co-author on her research and it's also given me other opportunities to meet people who have the same interests as me. And on top of that, I've been able to make so many friends here. UA campus is so diverse and there's so many people from different states and there's just so many opportunities where you get to meet people with different perspectives and who have different majors and you all just get to hang out and it's just a really great place to be.