Melanie Baskind

Classroom

Baskind is a neurobiology concentrator and has a secondary concentration in global health and healthy policy. She also owns a citation in Spanish and visited the Harvard Summer School in Argentina after her freshman year. She has attained Academic All-Ivy League honors three times and ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District twice, including 2010 when she earned a spot on the Academic All-America second team. Melanie is a pre-med student, who is interested in pursuing a career in pediatrics.

Character

Baskind has the unique opportunity of being both the captain of the Harvard women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse teams, demonstrating her amazing leadership abilities. Melanie deals with the adversity of being a two-sport athlete in the Ivy league, while being a pre-med student.  Baskind juggles her responsibilities of being a full-time student while serving as a captain for two squads. She is also a Peer Advising Fellow, giving her the opportunity to advise 10 freshmen each year.

Community

Baskind has been involved with a national program called Health Leads (Project Health) where she worked as an advocate in 2010. This is a national program that places college volunteers in different parts of low income hospitals, helping patients connect to resources like housing, utilities, food and clothing. Baskind worked at Boston Medical Center in the maternity ward and the experience led her to wanting to be a pre-med student. She has also been active on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at Harvard for two years and is a member of the Community Service Board, helping organize and run events such as the Bench Press for Breast Cancer, Athlete Charity Fund and the can and shoe drive. She has also run a soccer ball drive in her hometown to collect balls to donate to Coaches Across Continents, which is a program founded to use soccer to educate children in Africa about teammwork. Baskind has also volunteered at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at the Health and Fitness Expo in 2011, helping run free kidney disease screenings for residents of Boston.

Competition

Baskind has been one of the best players in the Ivy League since arriving on campus in the fall of 2008. She has helped the Crimson win two conference titles and reach the NCAA tournament in 2008 and 2009. In addition, Baskind has been a three-time All-Ivy League player and garnered Ivy Rookie of the Year honors in 2008 and first-team honors in 2010. As a junior, Baskind tied for the team lead in goals with nine and was second with 22 points. Entering her senior season, she ranks 10th in Harvard history with 19 goals, 11th with 17 assists and ninth with 55 points. She has also earned All-Ivy League honors twice in lacrosse.