Student Spotlight: Rosa Williams

Rosa Williams is a freshman in the packaging systems and design major and has quickly made herself a valued team member here at CPULD. She is from Marietta, Georgia, and expects to graduate in 2024. Rosa says she decided to attend Virginia Tech “because our packaging program has a major focus on sustainability, which really sets us apart from other universities. In my senior year [of high school], when I toured the Brooks Lab with Professor Horvath, I knew I had to attend Tech. I love the packaging program here at VT and I am so proud to be a part of it.”

When Rosa was younger, she was invested in her school’s engineering programs but always felt her assigned projects lacked a human connection. “That all changed when I entered high school and began working on capstone projects,” she said. “My first real capstone project was designing insulative material out of plastic waste for countries that couldn’t effectively recycle it. Even though a package can claim to be recyclable, this does no good to the environment if the area it is being sent to has no way to recycle it. That was one of the major factors that led me to packaging systems — there’s a lot of good to be done here. For impoverished countries, people with disabilities, and destroyed ecosystems, packaging innovation can dramatically improve conditions around the world.”

“Being able to dive right into hands-on experiences during my freshman year has been really helpful!” she continued. “Working in the Brooks Lab with Mary Alvarez was amazing, as I had peers with more knowledge and experience to guide me through my first real steps into the packaging world. I am currently working on an e-commerce package redesign project for Smurfit-Kappa, and I’ve loved being able to look into how market research is done within the industry.”

Rosa, who enjoys many of her classes, said, “All of my sustainable biomaterials courses have been wonderful this year! Through Professor Horvath’s SBIO 3005 and 3006 courses, I have been able to throw myself directly into practical applications of the concepts I am learning in other packaging classes. Working in the Brooks Lab on a pail compression strength project has really given me a better idea of what a possible day-to-day experience within the industry might be like. In addition to my packaging course work, I have loved being able to take Intro to Wood Craftsmanship and Design with Professor Loferski! Although I’m not the best at wood identification yet, I have really enjoyed learning more about the materials that surround me every day.”

Rosa is thankful to have received the Atlanta Alumni Chapter scholarship and the G. Scott Francis Pulp scholarship, and she’s put them to good use already. “As a freshman, I’m just really happy to be involved,” she said. “I’ve been attending job fairs in CNRE and doing as much as I can to learn about the industry. My long-term career goal is to design packaging that is inclusive to people with disabilities because one of the many things that I have learned during my time at Virginia Tech is the different ways packaging influences people’s lives. There are millions of Americans with disabilities and countless more who live with conditions that make opening traditional packaging difficult. My long-term career goals are to create sustainable packaging built with an understanding of disabilities. I’ve learned through my classwork that packaging can create a large obstacle to disabled people’s ability to live independently. Design with an emphasis on empathy, in addition to practicality, economic factors, and sustainability, is essential to creating a more inclusive world.”

Rosa is among those students who haven’t had what many of us would consider the “normal” college experience. “As a freshman who’s going to school during the pandemic, my first year of college has been way different than I expected. I live in the Orion science living-learning community on campus, and it’s been a great way to meet people who are just as passionate about their majors as I am. I feel really lucky that I joined the Orion community because it has provided me an opportunity to develop friendships and meet people. It’s definitely made it a lot easier for me to transition to college, and I’d recommend any science-loving freshman to do the same. Also, I am going to be a student mentor in the Orion living-learning community next year, so I would likely be the mentor for any incoming packaging freshmen!”

On her own time, Rosa is into gaming and crafting. She says she has “a great Dungeons and Dragons group, and every week we do what we call ‘D&D at D2.’ I do a lot of crafting, too. It’s not anything big or bold, I really just like to hot glue googly eyes and make resin earrings. I enjoy playing video games, even though I’m genuinely bad at everything other than Animal Crossing. If I were an animal I think I’d be a bird, like a raven or a crow. I really like collecting things, mostly small useless objects that most people would consider trash. I’m also very loud, and if you feed me I will be your friend.”