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 be a fly on the wall, basically, is the dream,” graduating senior Erin Zhu said, smiling. In the background, there was the quiet hum of students in the Mayer Campus Center. Zhu, an experienced college journalist, was finally on the other side of the interview.
Zhu is an international relations major on the cusp of graduation. Unlike most of her class here at Tufts, Zhu’s college journey began elsewhere. “My first year of college, I was at Rutgers in New Jersey,” she explained. Zhu wanted a smaller student body than the over 36,000 undergraduates at Rutgers, so Tufts was a better fit for her. “I didn’t actually join any official publications until I transferred to Tufts sophomore year,” she remarked.
Zhu has always had a penchant for the pen. “When I was really little, I would cut out paper and write in it and then bound it with string and make these little books. So I think there was always a desire to write and publish, something along those lines,” she said. At Tufts, Zhu found the Daily, which she pegged as the most prolific publication on campus. This became her foray into the fast-paced world of journalism. “It’s really cool,” Zhu said. “That it’s a bunch of 20-year-olds in an office basement putting together some really cool stuff. And I wanted to learn from the organization, and I also just enjoy writing. So I think I gravitated towards it for that reason.”
When Zhu first joined the Daily, she wrote for the Arts and Pop Culture section. The section stuck. “I found arts as a comfortable way to explore journalism,” she said. Zhu spent her year at Rutgers as an art history major, so she was familiar with the interplay between politics and self-expression. But even so, she was initially daunted by publishing her commentary in the Daily.
“At the beginning, I was really preoccupied with coming to the right opinion … having acceptable taste. … But I think over the years, I’ve fortunately been able to move away from that,” she said. Zhu has had a highly successful writing and editing career at the Daily. “Something I’m rather proud of is forming a strong relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra,” she remarked.
In the fall 2024 semester, Zhu served as the executive arts editor for the Daily, and in spring 2025, she joined the managing board as an associate editor.
“I think what’s unique about the managing board position is you get more of a bird’s eye view of the publication, and you can think more about the general direction of the paper,” she said. “That’s been really exciting. And of course, working with the people has been really fun and great.”
Being a part of the Daily has also taught Zhu invaluable lessons. “One of the most important skills that I’ve learned in terms of journalism is listening,” she said. “Being able to pick out what other people are saying, to understand them, understand their arguments, understand what positions exist around whatever topic or discourse.”
Spending years as a writer for the Arts section, specifically, has led Zhu’s views on the definition of art to evolve.
“Art was a mirror that you hold up to society, to the world, to other people,” she said. Then, she considered her current stance on art. “Now I feel like it’s maybe tied more to people’s inherent need to feel seen, whether you’re creating or not,” Zhu said. She sees art as a representation of experience — a definition that underscores how intimate and personal the act of creating is.
A lifelong writer and artist, Zhu enjoys being both the critic and the creator. “I think the critic’s end is always more comfortable, for better or for worse,” she said. Zhu has dreams of being a columnist for The New Yorker, providing social commentary a la Fran Lebowitz. “It’d be nice to live in New York City,” she mused. “Everyone wants to live in New York City, right?”
The past four years as an undergraduate have shaken up Zhu’s outlook on her life. “You know, when people organize the dominoes, and then they organize them perfectly in a way so they all fall just as you expect?” she asked. “That’s how I thought I should do things. I should line everything up, and then I would knock down the first domino, and then I would start living or something like that. I don’t really think I feel that way anymore. I think the stumbling around is inevitable but also probably the fun part and probably the more meaningful part.” She described her perspective as having “gotten looser,” and she has all the more security in herself because of that.
Zhu is now a strong believer in the philosophy of “yes.” “The most important thing I learned is to say yes to things,” she said. “Don’t be so confident that you know what you like and don’t like, and that you know what you are good and what you’re bad at.”
It is this mentality that Zhu will take with her beyond Tufts. Wherever her passions lead her, she will follow.
