Has Mosaic ever had an all-female staff before? 

It was the question that haunted me as I tried to come up with a theme for this issue. I told myself that using this opportunity to cover women’s empowerment wasn’t creative enough, that it was too obvious, but it was a thought I could not shake from my head. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie had come out the previous month, and people were talking about feminism like I had never seen before. I finally decided I would be remiss if I let this obvious theme slip away from me.  

So, women’s empowerment is our theme. Now what? 

I stood in front of our first all-female staff, 11 young women, at the front of our little classroom, listening in awe as they came up with idea after idea on how to tackle this really big issue, while still keeping it grounded in our lives here at UA. (I wish everyone could hear all the ideas we came up with. If we had all the time in the world, I believe each one would make a wonderful story) That was when I knew how blessed I was to have the staff I do. In the three semesters I’ve been in this class, I’ve never known a group of people to work together on an issue like this before. In the past, each team has worked on its niche, and it all came together at the end of the semester. That has worked in the past, but I knew we would need to collaborate further if we wanted to successfully tackle an issue like women’s empowerment. In every class, I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page when it came to our issue. Day by day, I saw the pieces falling into place until we created the issue you have in front of you. 

The Honors College is such a special place. In our class, we have young women from the College of Communication and Information Sciences, Culverhouse College of Business, and the College of Arts and Sciences, from a wide range of majors from biology to music and beyond, and from all four years of college. I know of no other place on campus allows a person to collaborate and learn with such a wide range of people, and it has certainly helped me grow this semester. Ever since signing up for Mosaic my freshman year, it has held a huge place in my heart. I don’t plan to go into journalism, but Mosaic has allowed me to pour my heart into what truly became a passion project.  

As a woman who is entering the male-dominated field of business, it is important to me to highlight what women truly can do when we are brought together. I hope you find this issue just as special as I do, and I can’t wait for you to see what our hard work has become. If it makes even the smallest of differences, it will be a success.