Student Blog: Meet Brooke Reynolds

Hi! My name is Brooke Reynolds and I’m a freshman at the University of Central Florida. I am originally from Long Island, New York, but I moved to Florida two years ago. I transferred from Florida Gulf Coast University, so this is my first semester here at UCF. I am an entertainment management major at UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. I’m currently taking three classes: Introduction to the Entertainment Industry, Music Appreciation, and Theatre Survey. 

My plans for this semester mostly involve getting settled. I began the transfer process from my old school back in October. It was a super last minute decision, but despite the stress of it I was extremely excited. Rosen is a great school for entertainment management, so I was beyond thrilled getting to start here for Spring semester. Moving to a new city and starting at a new school is rather intimidating. Luckily, UCF is a huge school with a ton of different clubs and opportunities to meet people. Rosen’s campus has a variety of clubs, such as: Knight Pops (a pop culture club), Cinema and Film Appreciation Club, Happiest Club on Earth (a Disney club), Pineapple Theatre (putting on Legally Blonde the musical this semester), and so much more. 

One of the classes I am taking this semester is Theatre Survey. So far, I have loved it. The course involves different lessons on acting, play writing, directing, and theatre history. My most recent assignment, ‘My Favorite Story’ response, gave me a lot of creative liberty with what I wanted to write about. I got the option to write about my favorite book, play, musical, movie, or tv series. I decided to write about Falsettos. I knew writing about a musical would be something I could easily do because of how passionate I am about them. Falsettos is my absolute favorite show. Getting to write about something I love so much is so rewarding. I admittedly procrastinated it a bit, but the assignment was something I could truly sit and work on for hours with it feeling like two seconds. I had to explain the relationships between each of the characters, along with the origins and the historical backdrop of the story. Being so passionate about the show made four pages feel like nothing. Getting to research Falsettos and the history behind both the creation of the story and the history of New York City during the 1980’s was super interesting. 

So far, I am loving UCF. Although the transfer process was very stressful, finding a school that caters to exactly what I want to do is so amazing. Getting to take classes that I am truly passionate about makes homework a lot easier. I absolutely love my Introduction to the Entertainment Industry class, having an entire lesson on Broadway and theatre is a dream come true. Having to watch Hamilton’s Tony Award performance as an assignment is pretty great. I am so excited for the rest of this semester and the start to my academic career at UCF!