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In her conference project with history faculty member Eileen Cheng, Kayla Paugas '17 challenged assumptions about Thomas Jefferson's views on race and slavery by researching the architecture of his home, Monticello.
"The reason why I love Sarah Lawrence and the reason why I picked this school was the idea of being able to be a scholar in my own right."—Kayla Paugas '17
Throughout the process, Eileen empowered Kayla to think like a historian. She encouraged Kayla to explore different types of scholarship—history, architecture, and philosophy—to understand and articulate the apparent contradictions between Jefferson's words in the Declaration of Independence and his actions at home.