The votes are in! Meet Lia Tabor, the winner of the Nelson Institute’s recent sticker design competition. Voted on by the Nelson Institute community, Tabor’s sticker features sandhill cranes with the words, “stand with sustainability,” and are available for pick up at Science Hall. This isn’t the first sticker Tabor’s ever designed. In fact, she has a whole portfolio of sticker designs behind her as she ran her own sticker shop while in high school. Now a junior at UW–Madison, Tabor jumps at any opportunity to show off her creativity through artistic expressions, all while keeping a pulse on sustainable business practices.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Any interests or hobbies?
I’m from Edina, Minnesota, and I went to Edina High School. Some of my interests and hobbies throughout high school included business and sustainability—two subjects I’ve always been interested in. I started a recycling club in high school where we took old homework, test exams, and teachers’ paperwork, recycled it, and made it into homemade paper that we then donated as notebooks for people to use. So, that’s where my interest in sustainability and environmental science first started.
Why did you choose to pursue a sustainability certificate?
I originally wanted to go to school for either environmental science or art, and my biggest inspiration for that is my dad who works in renewable energy. He’s the guy that digs through the trash and rinses out the plastic bags because he thinks it’s a waste to throw it away. So, that’s why I chose to do the sustainability certificate, and my major is supply chain management. It’s a really small major, but I knew I wanted to go into it because I had a sticker shop in high school.
You ran your own sticker shop in high school? How did you manage that?
I produced all of the stickers in my closet during my COVID years in high school. I ran it all through social media, and I had my own website. That was a learning curve. I had to be my own customer service person and learn HTML coding, but it was a super cool experience and great to mention during job interviews!
How did you make your sticker shop sustainable?
When you make your own stickers, there’s a lot of paper waste, and I became interested in how to reuse my materials, not only to save money, but to be more sustainable. That mindset has always stayed with me, and I really want to work in the healthcare supply chain. I think a lot of people don’t realize how business and sustainability can go hand-in-hand. For example, say I’m ordering surgical tools for my hospital and a bunch of them don’t get used or they’re not sterile anymore. Where do they go? How can I reuse that product so it doesn’t go to waste? That’s another part of sustainability and I’m super excited to work in that industry in the future. That’s another reason I chose the sustainability certificate. It fits with all my interests.
Have you always been creative? How has art manifested itself in your life?
Art has always been a huge part of my life. I loved drawing, painting, and jewelry-making while growing up. You name it, I can make it! I’ve done every possible arts-and-crafts hobby, and I was very surprised at how many opportunities UW–Madison has presented for me to be able to express that. My freshman year, I submitted a final project where I was able to make a zine about my own personal story and identity. I’m also in a club called the Wisconsin Business Review, and I designed their merch this year, which was really cool. And then, of course, the Nelson Institute sticker competition. There have been so many opportunities at UW–Madison that allow me to express myself in art, which has been wonderful because that’s originally what I wanted to go to school for. So, it’s almost like I get the best of both worlds.
Why did you decide to enter into the sticker design competition?
I honestly think that the sticker competition was made for me. It couldn’t have been a better opportunity. I’m earning my sustainability certificate, I ran a sticker shop, and I love drawing. I also wanted to bring attention to how business and sustainability intersect. That’s one of my passions in life, and I hope that through this sticker competition I’m able to advocate for business and sustainability.
Why did you choose to feature cranes in your sticker design?
I met up with the dean of the Nelson Institute, Paul Robbins, during one of his beginning-of-the-year meetings where he introduced himself and talked about the Nelson Institute. I think I was one of the only undergraduate students there — almost everyone else was a grad student. It was kind of scary, but I went in between classes, and Paul made this big speech about birds and how much he loved them.
So, when I saw the sticker competition, I emailed him, and the subject line was, “Very important bird question.” And I said, “Hi, Paul! My name is Lia Tabor and I’m a business student at the Wisconsin School of Business. I attended the Nelson welcome event last week and your intense passion for birds really resonated with me. I was wondering if you had a favorite bird that I could include in my sticker competition design. Thank you.”
That was my first time ever emailing him, and his response was actually the funniest thing ever. He said, “Hi, Lia. Whether my favorite bird is a useful place for you to start or not, it is your call, but I think we all unquestionably know that, for me, the bird is the crane. Which crane? I hear you ask. All of them.” And the first one he mentioned was the sandhill crane, which he described as giant, elegant, gregarious, graceful, funny, and a sign of our dedication to conservation throughout the late 20th century and early 21st. Obviously, with such a beautiful email that he wrote back to me, I had to make the crane the main focus of the sticker.
Where is your favorite place to stick your stickers?
I really like to decorate things. That’s what my stickers — they’re called deco stickers — were made for from my sticker shop. Honestly, anything with a flat surface like my phone, my computer case, and even my lamp!