Name: Marissa Elkins

Position: Design Editor

Hey guys! My name is Marissa Elkins, and I am a junior at the University of Alabama. I am majoring in Creative Media with a minor in Communication Studies. This past summer, I did a remote internship with a nonprofit in Birmingham where I interviewed women who worked on the front line for Covid-19, and it really taught me a lot about what some people have dealt with, so that was a really exciting internship for me, even if it was all done from my house. I am from Dothan, Alabama, and if you don’t know where that is, it’s in the lower right corner of Alabama, right on the Florida/Georgia line. Fun fact about Dothan: it is actually the peanut capital of the world. For as long as I can remember, I have been going to the Peanut Festival in Dothan, which revolves all around peanuts. Dothan is also 70 miles from the beach, so I grew up going there a lot, and as soon as it’s safe to travel, I’m going to go back to visit my family and go to the beach.

In my free time, I like to watch Netflix and TikTok. I am on the last season of Criminal Minds, and I am shocked I finished it because I never watch shows that have that many seasons.I have two dogs at home, and they are my little babies that I love very much. One of my dogs is a 10 year old chihuahua mix, and the other is a golden retriever mix that is 5 years old. It’s actually so funny to me because their size difference is comical, but they are still friends. I really want a dog of my own, but they can be expensive to take care of. I am graduating soon, so I’m going to wait until I can support one, but I am constantly looking at dogs in the shelters around here, thinking about adopting them. My dogs at home are both either shelter dogs or rescued, and I plan to do the same when I get my own dog, so I don’t really care about what breed I get.

This is actually my second time doing Mosaic. I actually took it my freshman year! My sister is two years older than me, and really enjoyed Mosaic when she had taken it, so I decided to take it. I liked Mosaic my freshman year, but  I was never able to fit Mosaic in my schedule after that. I wanted to take it again before I graduated, so I made sure to make space for it. My freshman year, I was on the design team of Mosaic, (funnily enough, I was actually on the design team with my sister so that was really fun) and I liked it so I decided to sign up to be on the team again. Majoring in Creative Media, I am learning how to work with video, but I like learning how to do design, because it broadens what I know how to do. I am so excited for Mosaic this year and to see what kind of projects we end up with in the end!