For Louise Gava ’07, St. Lawrence has been all about “location, location, location.” When asked what attracts her to St. Lawrence, the biology major from Clifton Park, NY, and Shenendehowa High School cites “its northern New York locale, close to the Adirondack Park in a rural community with lots of beautiful open space.”

Her fondness for the University’s setting notwithstanding, Gava says that two of her most meaningful experiences at St. Lawrence have involved its off-campus programs.

The Adirondack Semester, she says, “left me academically and emotionally fulfilled.” Of St. Lawrence’s study program in Kenya, she muses, “I am still adjusting to all that I learned. The field components allowed me first-hand experience living with East African hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, agriculturalists and urbanites.  My eyes were opened to the daily lives of these peoples, their interactions with their environment and their relationships to me in our increasingly globalized world.”

On campus, Gava says that her best academic experience was her Environmental Movements course in sociology, taught by Professor Ken Gould. “It took everything I thought I knew about environmentalism and made me question it then live it more deeply,” she says.

A member of the biology honorary, Gava is on the Nordic ski team. Her post-graduation plans involve a doctoral program in conservation biology.