Growing up in Easley, South Carolina, Mackenzie Kelley knew she wanted to attend a big university. In her mind, she was thinking somewhere like California or New York.

But as high school graduation came nearer, Kelley was hit with a dose of reality after researching schools she was interested in.

"College costs a lot of money," she discovered. "I guess I never realized that. I had friends whose parents were going to cover college, or they had a trust fund. That's great for them, but I never had any of those things. When I got to my senior year, and I was like, 'What am I going to do? I want to go to college, but I don't have the money.'"

She began touring colleges across the state. Her initial reaction to Clemson University was that it was too close to home. She ended up attending Clemson.

"I remember thinking I'll never go to Clemson. I'm so glad that life kind of pushed me here," Kelley said. "I wouldn't change it. Even if I had infinite funds and could go anywhere in the world, I'd still pick Clemson. The people here are so unique. I feel like the community here is just amazing."

One of the things that helped persuade Kelley to come to Clemson was her desire to be near her mother, Brook. As an only child in a single parent home, the two have always been very close. Brook was diagnosed with cancer when Kelley was very young. She went into remission when Kelley was seven or eight, she said.

"She lived her life being my mom," said Kelley, who has commuted to Clemson from Easley since her freshman year. "She went to all the school functions because she saw how fragile life was and she was there with me all the time."

Kelley came to Clemson thinking she wanted to major in political science. It didn't take her long to figure out that wasn't going to work. Her advisor suggested she try packaging science. It sounded kind of silly at the time to Kelley.

"I took my first class and I just absolutely fell in love with it," she said. "It was Intro to Packaging with Mrs. (Patricia Guerra) Marcondes. It was really fun and eye-opening and I didn't think a career could be something that I really enjoy.

"It's such a hidden gem. Every time someone asks me why packaging, I have to give them my elevator pitch on how everything you buy comes in a box or when you're in a store someone had to design everything in the store. I feel like it's an unsung hero in a lot of ways. As far as the importance of it, I feel like a lot of people forget how much effort goes on behind the scenes."

Kelley got to see firsthand how that looks in the real world when she completed her required six-month co-op working for Burt's Bees.

"That was so cool," she said. "It was so rewarding and awesome to see what my life could potentially look like in industry. I did a lot of drop testing, vibration testing, a lot of technical work. I did get some hands-on experience designing structures, different box dimensions, pallet configurations. My project manager let me see a lot of the behind the scenes work that go into taking the vision into real life."

Kelley added to that experience last summer with a 10-week internship at General Mills in Minneapolis.

"I was given three major projects," said Kelley, who will return to General Mills again next summer. "I had a project focused on sustainability, a project focused on graphics design and a project focused on plant trial. For the graphics project, I got to create it from my vision, get it printed and manufactured and execute a presentation. I just got a text from my manager the other day who said my package design made it to the front of headquarters where they display all their products. I also got to work on a plant trial, executing that all by myself. I work on some sustainability things which is kind of where I want my focus to shift."

Kelley completed her internship on the heels of learning that her mother had been diagnosed a second time with cancer in February. She has since gone into remission.

She appreciates the support she has received from her Clemson family.

"There was a moment in time when I was going to drop out of school because it's just us and she was going through treatment, going through chemo and I was just very overwhelmed because I thought in my head, she was there for me all the time and I should be there for her," Kelley said. "I remember her saying, 'You need to go and do everything and if at any point I need you, I'll tell you.' I was still there for her a lot.

"It's been very difficult, but my professors have been so caring about it. It's very evident they care about me as a person, not just a student."

Despite living in Easley, Kelley has found time to participate in the Packaging Club, and she is a College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences Ambassador where she serves on the student advisory board. She is also a member of Best Buddies, which pairs students up with participants in the Clemson Life Program. And if that's not enough, Kelley works in the civil engineering department and is a member of Alpha Omega Epsilon, a sorority for women in STEM.

Kelley is in the one-year master's program for packaging science where she recently started her research with associate professor R. Andrew Hurley looking at the impact compostable cutlery has on soil health and vermiculture health.