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This eighth cohort comprises students from 25 countries who will pursue degrees in 46 graduate programs across all seven graduate schools at Stanford, the program announced May 13. Perez aspires to develop tools to enable children to understand their own minds and empower them to better navigate academic, social, and emotional challenges, according to her bio on the KHS website. 

Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in psychology at Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences.

A philosophy and data science double major at Lake Forest College, Perez was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in 2023 and is a three-time recipient of the Roger A. White ’60 Prize in Philosophy for her intellectual curiosity and commitment to lifelong learning.

She began her scholarly research at Lake Forest the summer after her first year working with Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Neuroscience Paul Henne on his Richter Scholar Summer Research project, “Counterfactual thinking and recency effects in causal judgment,” which was published in Cognition, an international peer-reviewed scientific journal covering cognitive science. The Richter Scholar Program provides rising sophomores with the opportunity to conduct independent, individual research with Lake Forest College faculty early in their academic careers. 

“Karla is a great example of the unique kind of interdisciplinary work that we do at Lake Forest College. Not only does she have the technical skills to succeed in cognitive science but also the philosophy and humanities background to make a distinctive impact on these fields.”

At Lake Forest, Perez also worked with Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Politics Chad McCracken and Henne on “No evidence that reversibility affects causal judgments in late-preemption cases,” which was published in Philosophical Psychology, a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the links between philosophy and psychology.

“Karla is a great example of the unique kind of interdisciplinary work that we do at Lake Forest College,” Henne said. “Not only does she have the technical skills to succeed in cognitive science but also the philosophy and humanities background to make a distinctive impact on these fields. I am really looking forward to reading her future work.”

Prior to starting her graduate school studies, Perez investigated how children’s self-knowledge affects their approach to problems in a developmental lab as a researcher in the MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Research Scholars Program.