From Farms in Costa Rica to Alaska, Lizzie Babcock Hopes to Make a Sustainable Difference

Michigan State Cross Country and Track & Field junior distance runner Lizzie Babcock has taken her love for the outdoors and turned it into her life. As a horticulture major, focusing on sustainable and organic practices, Babcock puts the 'green' in 'Go Green' as an MSU student-athlete.

Babcock grew up in Novi, Mich. and her love for the outdoors started there with her family.

"I have always enjoyed doing things outside. One of the activities I really liked was picking blueberries with my grandpa when I was growing up," said Babcock.

During the summer of 2023, Babcock, also a Spanish minor, traveled to Costa Rica as part of a Michigan State study abroad program. She worked on a coffee farm and gained knowledge about the community.

"On the farm, we would do daily maintenance tasks regarding coffee production. We also conducted research on how to improve their sustainability."

Vincent Delgado is an academic specialist at Michigan State and the director of the Education Abroad program on sustainability in Costa Rica.

"Undoubtedly it is challenging for students to live in people's homes, engage with communities facing challenges to their sustainability and resilience and complete complicated community participatory research projects — all the while navigating a foreign language, a new culture and new communities," said Delgado.

Babcock enjoyed her expedition to Central America. She walked away from her trip with new knowledge about sustainability and farms in Costa Rica.

"I learned a better idea of what sustainability is; it's not so cut and dry and it looks different for every community," said Babcock.

Babcock's goal is to be able to work within communities to help with their day-to-day lives.

"I want to work with communities to help them find solutions to food insecurity," said Babcock. "I grew up feeling fortunate enough to be born into the situation that I was born into and not everyone else is as fortunate."

This summer Babcock plans on going to Kodiak Island, Alaska to work on a hydroponic farm. This type of farm is known for using water to grow crops instead of soil. She hopes to learn how to grow different kinds of food on this farm.

"Kodiak is a food-insecure area because they are on an island that relies on imports," said Babcock.

She looks forward to observing a different kind of food insecurity and how the community is impacted. Her enthusiasm is contagious when she talks about this upcoming trip.

"I'm so ready, it's going to be so much fun," she says.

Babcock started her athletic career playing soccer.

"I did sprints for track to get better at soccer, then I did cross country so that I could get better at track; it turns out I was pretty solid at cross country and here we are," said Babcock.

Babcock is not only studious and athletic, but she also has many musical talents. She can play the oboe, french horn and piano and is planning to learn how to play the organ. Babcock received Academic All-Big Ten honors as well as being a distinguished Big Ten scholar in the 4.0 GPA classification. She has always worked hard in school and put lots of effort into balancing training and school.

"I grew up through church and missionary work and that's something that has always been really important to me," said Babcock.

Traveling has been a major part of Babcock's life. Both of her parents are teachers and they would often take family trips during the summer.

Babcock looks forward to being able to travel to as many different communities as she can and she hopes to share her knowledge with the world while also understanding how different areas of the world struggle.

From Farms in Costa Rica to Alaska, Lizzie Babcock Hopes to Make a Sustainable Difference

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Lizzie Babcock

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