SLC Transcript Review

From his first year at Sarah Lawrence, Diego Jaime has pursued architecture as a way of understanding how people live together in the world. In Nick Roseboro’s interdisciplinary courses, Diego found a mentor whose wide-ranging work, spanning topics like the Sears catalog house and railways in Senegal, mirrored his own curiosity. Through site visits and global inquiry, their conversations reflect a core Sarah Lawrence aim: educating world citizens — students who approach fields like architecture not simply as design, but as a lens on human experience.

Jerusha (Rue) Beckerman, director of the Art of Teaching master’s program, and graduate student Lilly Rushe reflect on a teaching philosophy rooted in holistic, child-centered education. Enrolled in SLC’s five-year program, where students begin graduate study in their senior year and earn both a BA and an MSEd, Lilly gained classroom experience from the start. In her first semester, Lilly worked closely with young children alongside Rue at the College’s on-campus Early Childhood Center — an experience that shaped how she listens, learns, and advocates as an educator. At Sarah Lawrence, teaching is both an intellectual and creative practice, and the process of learning never ends.

In this episode, Dahlia Shepherd and dance program director John Jasperse ’85 explore how dance at Sarah Lawrence connects creative practice with professional experience. Through the Open Performance program, Dahlia collaborated with visiting artists, gaining a behind-the-scenes view of how a dance company works. Alongside studying movement theory, creating choreography, and analyzing performance, she found a strong sense of community and purpose—culminating in what she describes as “seeing the birth of something,” bringing an original work to life from concept to performance.

Poetry was a world Alex Karger didn’t know she was missing, but enrolling in Neil Arditi’s literature courses showed her how poems can change your life. Listen in on their discussion of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Mont Blanc,” how to become a skilled reader, and, ultimately, how to have a richer conversation with yourself about what it means to be and do good in the world.

In this conversation, Jillian Wickens-Johnson and her professor, Roy Ben-Shai (philosophy), reflect on their work together at Sarah Lawrence — from first-year studies on women philosophers to an advanced seminar on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. Roy’s courses emphasize close reading, collaborative discussion, and the discipline to seek to understand before critiquing. With Roy’s mentorship, Jillian shaped an academic path that bridges philosophy, art history, and political theory. Together, they exemplify SLC’s shared process of inquiry that continues beyond graduation with an expanding community of students, faculty, and alumni.

Creative writing? Physics? Why not both?

Juliana Worden came from an arts-focused high school and had never taken physics before. That didn’t stop her from enrolling in Merideth Frey’s classes (including a seminar on nuclear magnetic resonance), writing a paper on quantum computing, and exploring chaos theory as both a scientific discipline and a storytelling tool. With individualized attention and conference projects designed around student interests, potentially intimidating subjects become exciting opportunities. Professors help students find the edges — where disciplines overlap and new ideas live — and support them in contributing something genuinely original.

Leaving a small town for college can feel overwhelming, but for Emma McKibben, the Sarah Lawrence community — and her don, Parthiban Muniandy — made all the difference in introducing her to a truly global education. Together, they talk migration studies, study abroad, community engagement, and how taking charge in the classroom builds confidence.

Signed up for a random class just to fill credits ➝ accidentally found your passion? David Hollander’s fiction workshop flipped the script just like that for Allie Zapson. All the while, Allie’s courage to ask the tough questions — “Why are we reading this?” — lit a spark for David as an educator. From group conferences to wild reading lists, this is what happens when you stay curious.

Paige Ackerson-Kiely, director of Sarah Lawrence’s MFA in Writing program, and nonfiction faculty member Heather Harpham recognized early on that Hayley Burgess had something special. Heather’s approach centers on nurturing what is already alive in a student’s work, a philosophy reflected in her course Cells and Stars: Writing the Body, where class often moved outside and writing in nature helped Hayley feel more grounded and embodied. Through close, one-on-one faculty conferences, Hayley gained the confidence to develop her voice, supported by mentorships that value patience, trust, and discovery.