Spartan Profiles: Beth Hockman

FIRESTARTER IN AFRICA

            The book Firestarters (2006, JIST Publishing) profiles 100 young women whose career achievements might inspire girls and young women to explore their career options.  One was Beth Hockman, ’91, who chose to become an organic blueberry farmer in South Africa. 

            “It’s amazing to do work that aids in poverty alleviation in a developing country,” says Hockman, who from 2003-2005 managed a farm with her husband in Magoebaskloof, about four hours east of Johannesburg near Kruger National Park.  The job required 12-hour days of physical labor, which Beth found very appealing and liberating. 

            “I really enjoyed working with happy, vibrant people who have a respect for life that supersedes any materialism of America,” explains Beth, who concedes that she did miss chocolate chip cookies and movie theaters.  But she did not miss her commute from Jersey City through the Holland Tunnel to the Bronx while working for Outward Bound in New York. 

            “I rode a mountain bike from my house to the orchard every morning,” she recalls, “and we passed by monkeys along the way.”  

            A native of Birmingham, MI, she chose MSU over the University of Michigan because, in her words, “I found the people at MSU more down-to-earth and less arrogant.”  In her sophomore year, she went on an Outward Bound trip to the North Cascades in Washington.  “When I returned, I said, ‘This is it,’” she says.  "I really enjoyed the wilderness, being with people who are not wrapped up in materialism.  We had a rainstorm and it was a great equalizer.  You got to know people at their core, not by what clothes they wore.” 

            Now back in the U.S., Beth and her husband have started the American Adventure Service Corp. in Asheville, NC.  “It’s a mixture of Outward Bound and the Peace Corps,” she explains.  Her advice to new graduates?  “Pick a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life.”