30 Under 30: Mary Helen Williams

Interior Design Student

Words by Alyson Robbins | Image by Ryan McGill

Captivated by the family atmosphere of The Plains, Mary Helen Williams committed to Auburn University before ever deciding on a major.

“It’s a home away from home” she says.

After talking with a Samford Interior Design student, she began researching AU’s highly ranked Interior Design program and declared her career path. 

In her freshman year, Mary Helen took Introduction to Interior Design lecture and studio, both prerequisites for admission to the program. After submitting her portfolio, a compilation of projects assigned within the studio, Mary Helen gained admittance into the highly competitive program.

Now a full-time student, she will study residential, commercial, and hospitality design over the next four years.

She says the design process has proved to be quite challenging—“There’s a lot of schematics you have to go through first”—and it is not simply determining a floor plan and creating a vision board.  

Although she has just begun her studies, she envisions living in the southern tropics designing vacation homes. But even Mary Helen knows that often the best laid plans are futile.

As for her direction, “Only God knows,” she says. 78