It’s easy to get lost in the crowd, but throughout the years some people leave behind a legacy.

To honor women who have left their mark at Iowa State, a mural has been painted in the recreational room of Oak-Elm residence hall – the only all-women’s dorm on campus.

Each floor in Oak-Elm is named after a woman who has positively impacted Iowa State, and the mural was created not just to honor them, but to honor present and future students who will make their mark on campus, said Mickey Fitch, Oak-Elm hall director.

“Kris Olds, who is a member of the Women’s Leadership Consortium on campus, was offering mini-grants for women’s enrichment projects on campus,” Fitch said. “I figured since we were the only all-women residence hall on campus, we should definitely figure out some sort of project to capitalize on this.”

Kimberly Costello and Kimberly Topp, junior and sophomore in graphic design, designed the mural.

“Contrary to the saying, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ we decided using words to encapsulate what the women stood for,” Topp said.

Their brown-toned type, designed to keep the integrity of the building, spans across half of the wall and contains dozens of words, from “zeal” to “love” and all the names of each floor of Oak-Elm.

One word is found on the wall twice – “family.”

“You’d have to live in Oak-Elm to really understand, but basically it’s because when you’re here, it truly feels like everyone around you is family,” Topp said. “Together we bicker, cry, gossip, share stories, eat, lean on one another . It’s a really close-knit community and ‘family’ is the only word that could really say all of that.”

Topp has spent the last semester as a community adviser in Oak-Elm.

“With the semester [Topp] has lived here, she has been able to pick up on the sense of community, sisterhood and camaraderie that exists within [Oak-Elm] . I just think it is awesome that she was able to feel that right away,” Fitch said. “Kim Costello, who lives in Willow, also commented several times about how she could feel the bonds of [Oak-Elm] when she was here.”

The process began in the fall. Topp said the hardest step was tracing the words onto the wall, which they traced and painted for an entire month.

“We would stay up until 5 a.m. working, sleep for a couple hours and then get up at seven to grab breakfast and head to our 8 a.m. class,” Topp said. “We owe a thanks to [Fitch] for all the support and in being very prompt in helping us get the supplies we need and to all of the residents who came down and entertained us while we painted during the long hours. And of course to the friends who brought us food and coffee.”

Upon completion, Topp, Costello and Fitch reflected on the experience, from creation to final product.

“It shows the students who are living here now that they can easily possess all of the qualities that the women on the wall had, it’s a matter of finding these qualities and using them for the best,” Topp said. “I think that one of the greatest messages behind the mural is that despite the diversity and histories of each and every woman, there will always be things tying them together – things like hope, dedication, courage and zeal.”