Editor’s note: The Daily’s editorial department acknowledges that this article is premised on a conflict of interest. This article is a special feature for Commencement 2025 that does not represent the Daily’s standard journalistic practices.
To whom it may concern,
Graduating senior Julia Carpi has run the gamut in terms of opportunities offered at the Daily by serving as an executive video editor, associate editor and executive audio editor. Having worked with her for two years now, we can speak to her work ethic, talent and stellar personality.
Carpi found the Daily to be an important exploratory space given that Tufts does not offer a major in journalism.
“On the surface level, [the Daily] is my journalism and writing education at Tufts,” Carpi said. “We are learning what it’s like to produce high-quality content. We take it seriously and we can feel proud of the work we put out.”
During her first semester on campus, Carpi found herself dissatisfied with her film classes. She reached out to Ty Blitstein (LA’24), the then-executive video editor at the Daily, and asked to get involved.
“I started halfway through my [first-year] fall because I wasn’t involved in anything and I was like, ‘I should probably do something,’” she said. “I was taking film classes, and I didn’t like them, and I wanted to still do something video-related, but I just really didn’t like the film classes here, and I was too stressed out by how structured they were.”
The Video section was incredibly small at that point in time, and Carpi often found herself the only other person at section meetings on Zoom with Blitstein during her entire first year.
Carpi’s tenacity showed through as she stuck with the mostly asynchronous section for a year. She later became the executive video editor herself and led the section for the entirety of her sophomore year.
“Our community [during] my sophomore year was so special. We were so close,” she said. “[We started] from sort of having no one … and then when I finished my sophomore year, we had like 15 people that were all really close.”
The sense of community within the video section grew immensely under Carpi; she takes pride in expanding and bringing life to the section.
As an associate editor during her junior fall, Carpi’s time on the Daily’s managing board connected her to the paper in new ways beyond just the video section.
“Going into it, [I] was super nervous because I was the only person coming from multimedia, and I wasn’t super immersed in the mainstream Daily culture of it all. … Video was a little bit on the outskirts, socially,” she said. “But it was just perfect. Everyone balanced each other out. … We all became friends, too, which I think probably is what actually was the really good part.”
Carpi studied abroad in Seville, Spain during her junior spring. Although she didn’t anticipate taking on a large multimedia role at the Daily again, Carpi was asked to serve as the executive audio editor upon her return. Among the many projects she has worked on, Carpi describes one of her favorite projects, Off the Record, which is the Daily’s version of NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts.
“[Off the Record] is the best because it gets multimedia into the office, gets Video into the office, and I love it,” Carpi said. “It’s also fun because I think the Daily is sort of shielded from the rest of Tufts a little bit, so that’s also a fun way to get bands in the office.”
Carpi has also expanded from her multimedia roots, creating a popular love advice column called “Hearts on the Hill” in the Features section this semester.
“I’m so happy I did it because it was so fun and, truly, my little passion project this semester,” she said.
“Hearts on the Hill” has given advice to 19 “Yearners,” as Carpi affectionately calls them.
“I was shocked because I didn’t think I would get anyone writing in, and I got so many responses. So it was so fun. It also was very much like a little diary for me. … I think I just really liked that style of writing, which was good to learn about myself. It’s just more creative, free-form.”
Carpi has also been incredibly busy on and off campus outside of the Daily. Most notably, she has been heavily involved in the Tufts Burlesque Troupe and even co-directed their most recent production.
“Burlesque is the best ever, and I love it because it’s kind of like the opposite of the Daily in some ways,” she said. “The Daily [has] the structure and the academic side, and then Burlesque [has] the self-expression, creative side of stuff. … It’s been such a good creative outlet for me.”
Carpi danced extensively growing up but grew tired of the intensity of a structured dance education. In burlesque, she found an adequately flexible environment.
“It is all about having fun and doing what feels good to you and not worrying about how it looks, and that was really refreshing coming from normal dance,” she said.
As she prepares to graduate, Carpi feels appreciative of her time at Tufts. If she were to offer any advice to an incoming student, she would say to live in the moment.
“I think you don’t realize how special the time is that you have here, and there’s so much going on that goes by so fast,” Carpi said
When asked to describe the Daily in a few words, one stuck out in Carpi’s mind: community.
“All of the other stuff is important, but community is what I’m taking from it,” she said. “I feel like I have gotten so much purpose at [the Daily] just from obviously the work that we do but also the community that we built for each other.”
Carpi will make an incredibly diligent, dedicated employee anywhere she goes. Though she’s not yet sure what the future holds, she is excited by the prospect of continuing to work in media.
“I want to do something with writing. And I really love talking to people and that feels like a journalism thing, but I’m super open to whatever. I also love multimedia. … So I don’t really know where that leads me. I think news podcasts would be awesome, audio journalism would be awesome or just more long-form writing,” Carpi said. She joked, “Anyone out there with any job openings — I’m on LinkedIn.”
