Liz Crawford ’25 grew up in Vermont, and when it came time for college, she knew she wanted to stay in the state. “Vermont is a beautiful place to live,” she says. “I loved growing up in Burlington; I love the outdoors, I love to hike and mountain bike, and to play Ultimate.” 

At Middlebury, Liz found her ideal college: a place where she could expand her outdoor activities to include downhill skiing, which she learned how to do at the Snowbowl, and to continue what she loved—especially Ultimate, which she began playing in high school. At Middlebury, she is a member of the Pranksters, which has now won the women’s Division III national championships three times in a row.

“I can’t imagine my Middlebury experience without the Pranksters,” she says. “It’s such a staple of my life here. And it’s not just about the sport. It’s the biggest family I could ever have. The men’s and women’s teams travel together, we eat in Proctor together—it’s a community.”

At Middlebury, Liz has volunteered at the Yellow House, a residential community for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and is a SPECS (Sex-positive Peer Education for College Students) peer educator. The organization, which is run out of the Office of Health and Wellness, works with students, from incoming first-years to athletic teams and other groups. “It’s difficult work,” she says. “We talk about difficult topics that many people our age find uncomfortable, but it’s important to level the information playing field. I want to be able to empower people.”

A psychology major, Liz is spending her first autumn away from Vermont, studying abroad in Copenhagen. She’s studying positive psychology and working with children at an international school in a nearby community. There, she’s developing a behavioral intervention research project on how physical activity improves children’s attention spans. She’s also joined a club Ultimate team, and she ran the Copenhagen Half Marathon in September.

She couldn’t have done any of this, she says, without the generosity of Middlebury and its alumni. Liz’s father died of cancer before she was born, and her mother raised her and her older brother alone. “When I found out that I received a scholarship to go to Middlebury—that alumni who don’t even know me believed in me and are helping me afford my education—that meant so much. It’s made going to Copenhagen possible. It’s made all of this possible.”