Name: Lizzie Brown

Position: Design Team

My name is Lizzie Brown, and I am an Honors College senior here at UA majoring in Management Information Systems. I am from the western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois originally but love living in Tuscaloosa and I’m sad to leave this summer. Personally, the hardest part about going to college far from home is leaving my dog, cat, and Portillo’s food. I am a big dog person so one of my favorite things to do in Tuscaloosa is the Happy Hour program at Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter where you can take dogs in the shelter for walks. And one of my favorite volunteer programs through UA was Therapeutic Riding of Tuscaloosa (TROT) where we helped to clean stalls and take care of the horses and other animals.

One thing I will miss the most from Tuscaloosa is the food! I love Blenz Bowls, Heritage House, T Town Café, and the ice cream from Ingram Farms. And as someone who loves sushi, Chuck’s Fish, Hokkaido, and OEC have been some of my favorite places to go. Pre-pandemic I used to enjoy going out to try new food and places to eat, but now I spend a lot of time reading, learning to cook, and preparing for my life and career post-graduation. Some of my chosen TV shows to binge-watch are Schitt’s Creek, New Girl, and Game of Thrones (excluding season 8). I have definitely watched Schitt’s Creek beginning to end too many times, and it may be my all-time favorite TV show after discovering it over the summer. I also love music and finding new artists, so I am constantly creating new Spotify playlists to organize everything.

During my time living in Tuscaloosa, I have enjoyed hiking the trails at Lake Nicol and being able to make trips to Bankhead National Forest and the Great Smoky Mountains. The warmer weather here compared to Illinois has been a big incentive for me to get outside since so much more of the year is enjoyable to be outside. I love to travel and see new places, so I am looking forward to hopefully being able to plan a trip after graduation to visit national parks. I have been to about a quarter of them already and have made it a goal to see all of them. My top parks that I want to visit are Redwood, Sequoia, and Joshua Tree National Parks in California and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. 

After graduation, I hope to start a career as a business analyst or software developer and one day work particularly with UI/UX design. As a senior in high school, I was an editor for the yearbook and especially enjoyed designing the pages. I also have experience with website design which I enjoyed doing, and so I am excited to be a part of the design team on Mosaic magazine to gain a different kind of experience and collaborate with the team.