December 2024 ABI Alum Spotlight: Sasha Montero-De La Torre
My name is Sasha Montero-De La Torre and I graduated from UC Davis in Spring 2017
with a B.S. in Animal Biology and Minors in Psychology and Music. From a very young age, I
have always wanted to help, learn more and conserve animals, especially endangered species.
I knew I wanted become a researcher and obtain a post-graduate degree to achieve those
goals. When beginning my journey at Davis, the ABI major was a no-brainer as it provided me
with the tools to learn how to conduct research and write a practicum! It was a rigorous 4 years,
but I would not change my experience for the world! I had a wonderful group of friends in my
cohort and our bond got us through everything!
To truly figure out what type of researcher I wanted to be, I volunteered my time
intending to learn about other careers in my field. I volunteered for Wild Campus, the Museum
of Wildlife and Fish Biology, interned at the California National Primate Research Center
(CNPRC), and conducted my practicum research on piglet behavior with Dr. Kristina Horback.
The ABI major narrowed my interests and prepared me for a career in animal behavior
research.
Post-graduation, I became an Animal Behavior intern at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
where I used the skills from the ABI program in a practical setting. After, I applied to the Animal
Behavior and Conservation Master’s program at Hunter College, City University of New York
where I worked with Asian elephants in USA and Thailand! Now full circle, I am a Staff
Research Associate under the Bauman Lab at the CNPRC hoping to better understand the
behavioral and cognitive differences in the non-human primate maternal immune activation
(MIA) model. I have loved my career journey and am thankful for the ABI major for setting me
up for success! It has been so fun doing what I do, and am thankful for all the experiences that I
have had and will continue to have. The Animal Biology undergraduate program is an
instrumental program for those who want to conduct animal research at any capacity.