ESP Biography



SONDRA LAVIGNE, Harvard senior studying Biology




Major: Organismic and Evolutionary Bio

College/Employer: Harvard College

Year of Graduation: Not available.

Picture of Sondra Lavigne

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Hi! I'm Sondra and I am a senior at Harvard studying Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. I am a lover of biology, particularly of mammals, and spent the spring semester of my junior year studying abroad on safari in Tanzania (Eastern Africa). For the past three years I have volunteered as a tutor and later a director of one of Harvard's ESL (English as a second language) programs, Recent Immigrant Term Enrichment (RITE), but am excited to teach my first class with ESP. I am very interested in the evolution and ecology of animals (the hard science stuff) as well as conservation and how animals and humans interact. After graduation, I plan on teaching high school biology and eventually studying either environmental policy/management or conducting research and teaching at a university. I come from a small farming town in Maryland, but since coming to Harvard have traveled to Tanzania, Borneo, and Hong Kong, conducted research on parasitic flowers, worked at a horseback riding facility for the disabled, and interned at a zoo breeding/veterinary center for endangered big cats.

I hope you'll take a look at my class if you are interested in African wildlife. Feel free to send me an e-mail if you'd like to talk about conservation biology, evolution, applying to college, traveling, or anything else!



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S3142: African Wildlife Biology in HSSP Harvard HSSP Spring 2010 (Feb. 06, 2010)
This course will examine the evolution, anatomy, ecology, and management of African wildlife. We will cover the evolutionary connections and basic biology of a wide range of animals as well as topics like human-wildlife conflict and national park structures across East Africa, incorporating a few concepts from AP Biology and Environmental Science. Museum specimens (skulls, pelts, etc.) will be incorporated into classes as often as possible and we will take trips to the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology to get up close and personal with these animals. Please be aware that this class has an application question. You must answer the application question, and you will not be officially enrolled until the teacher tells you that you have been accepted into the class.