Contact: Christie McNeal

STARKVILLE, Miss.—A Mississippi State student is one of 24 undergraduate architecture students across North America selected by Metropolis magazine for its Future100 cohort.

A fifth-year architecture student from Kennesaw, Georgia, Alysia E. Williams said the program recognizes the top 100 architecture and interior design students in the class of 2023.

“When I found out I was selected, I was completely shocked,” she said. “Nevertheless, seeing that I was selected just further solidified my faith that things work out as they should despite any doubt we may have for ourselves, and I was incredibly grateful.”

“To have a student named in the Future100 indicates the quality of our students,” said MSU School of Architecture Director and F.L. Crane Professor Karen Cordes Spence.

The program is sponsored by Armstrong, Daltile, Formica, Interface, Kawneer, Keilhauer, Sherwin-Williams and Yabu Pushelberg. This year’s selection includes Williams and 23 of her undergraduate peers from across the nation and Canada plus 26 graduate architecture students and 50 undergraduate and graduate interior design students.

Upon graduation this May, Williams plans to work remotely for the Utah-based architectural design firm Method Studio, where she served as an undergraduate research fellow during her junior year.

“As a new mother, my long-term goals are to be in a position where I can be there for my son, Elijah, while serving the community I am in through design after obtaining my license. In the meantime, I look forward to engaging in affordable multifamily housing projects and design work that directly involves community outreach,” Williams said.

“I would encourage any student in architecture, no matter the year level, to strive not for the purpose of being seen or academically acknowledged but to strive for the purpose of wanting to create change—whether that change be within yourself, or to inspire change in others,” she said. “Whenever you lower yourself with the intention to lift others up, you will always accomplish the things that you set out to achieve.” 

Visit www.metropolismag.com/programs/presenting-the-2023-metropolis-future100 to see the full Future100 list.

MSU’s School of Architecture offers the state’s only professional architecture degree accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. Learn more at www.caad.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.