Meet Lizzie

I am Lizzie and I am the creator and host of this space, The Student Collective.

I hold a Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. and I currently am a professor in the field of Multilingual Education. I am also a daughter, sister, fiancé, friend… a world traveler, an avid exerciser, a great cook, and a detailed planner. I find joy in productivity, organization, and balance, and I feel the most whole when I am tapping into all parts of myself.

However, it hasn’t always been this way. When I was in college, I was not able to create structure in my life and I spent four years feeling unlike myself. Constantly scrambling, neglecting priorities, all for the sake of having fun with my friends. And did I have fun? Absolutely! But what I know now is that I could have been having fun AND feeling good about myself and the work I was doing in school.

When I returned to grad school a few years later, I had grown out of some of my college tendencies and had learned a lot about being an adult - how to manage my responsibilities, a household, and my social life all at the same time. I refused to put my life on the back burner for the sake of my degree and was able to live a full life while studying AND working full-time. I was efficient with my time, prioritized the things that were most important to me, and was tenacious about completing both my Masters and my Ph.D. in record time.

“How do you do it all??” I always seemed to get that question. The thing is we only see what someone puts out; we don’t see behind the scenes. No one saw all of the planning and prep, the strict schedules and the self-talks that helped me bring organization, efficiency, and productivity to my life. So I started sharing my tricks with my classmates and my students. I scheduled phone calls and coffee dates to give them pep talks and help them map out their path to graduation. I would give unsolicited advice to my friends with ideas for how to make their life more fulfilling (this is a terrible habit btw - no one wants unsolicited advice!!). But people trusted me and my recommendations and so many said my tips and perspectives “changed their life”. I mean… I’m a life changer. Does it get any cooler than that?! (A totally sarcastic one too…)

The thing is my dream in life is for everyone to be, do, and feel their best. If you don’t succeed, I don’t succeed. I am a person who is pained by other people’s pain, and I don’t want us spending our precious days on this earth feeling disheveled, worn down, and unfulfilled. What would it mean if we all were able to live each day feeling joy, accomplishment, and confidence? What would it be like if we were able to share in a community where we celebrate each other’s successes and push one another to achieve our next goals? How could our lives and those of the people around us shift when we start maximizing our contributions to this world?

This is my hope for the space of The Student Collective. I want to share tips for organization, success, and balance and I want to build connections between people who are working hard at improving themselves. And I want to maybe.. Just maybe.. Change YOUR life.