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 2026 that does not represent the Daily’s standard journalistic practices.
Graduating senior Linda Huang always knew she wanted to be part of the Daily. From her ‘Why Tufts?’ essay to her first time writing for the Opinion section, she knew she had something to say and an important reason to say it.
Huang started her journalism career in high school, despite the fact that her international high school did not have a student paper. She completed a summer internship at the only English-language magazine in Beijing, China; through her internship, she was able to connect with community members in a meaningful way. Civic engagement is something she cares about deeply, and when looking at colleges, she knew that Tufts and the Daily were perfect avenues for her to continue this side of her passion. When she was accepted in the first round of early decision, she couldn’t wait to arrive on campus.
Joining the Opinion section in the spring her first year felt like an obvious choice for Huang, as opinion writing coincided with her academic interests. Majoring in both international relations and economics, she explored the wide economic disparity of Tufts students, with over 18% of students coming from families in the top 1% of earners, while only 11.8% came from the bottom 60% in 2017. She is fascinated with socioeconomics and wanted to inform the Tufts community about issues they may never have faced before. In the fall of her junior year, she began her column “Coffee Table Socioeconomics,” which helped motivate her to continue with socioeconomic research and practice communicating economic concepts.
As Huang became more involved with the Daily, she found herself embracing the editing process as a deputy opinion editor. Starting in spring 2025, Huang found that editing opinion articles exercised her ability to bring out other writers’ unique voices. While she still prefers writing over editing, she loved how editing gave her the chance to explore what other people were passionate about, as well as learn about issues she had never been exposed to before. Her work inspired a desire to create a collaborative editing environment. As chair of the editorial board in fall 2025, she made this desire a reality.
Huang then joined the 93rd Managing Board as an associate editor, and that experience has taught her the importance of a strong, like-minded community. In this role, she was constantly challenged; the late hours of Wednesday print production nights left her exhausted, copy editing straight quotes into curly quotes haunted her dreams and she was forced to cut back on her writing, only publishing a column about movies in the Arts section. Even so, she knew that this experience was a way for her to truly see the impact of the work she put in every day. It allowed her to learn about different Daily sections, as she had only ever been involved in the Opinion section before. Being in the office, attending managing board meetings and running executive board meetings allowed her to bond with new people, forging strong interpersonal connections.
If there is anything she wants to take away from the Daily, it is her newfound communication skills. Writing articles forced her to ensure she was persuasive, had sound reasoning for her arguments and structured her writing well. Being able to edit, especially, is a skill she feels is transferable to future employment.
But this article barely touches on all the amazing things Linda was able to learn and accomplish while at Tufts. She was a writing fellow with the Student Accessibility and Academic Resources Center, also known as the StAAR center, spent time as a teaching assistant in the economics department and was involved with Tufts Sino-U.S. Relations Group Engagement, a student club dedicated to China-U.S. relations. She also made sure to enjoy the unique opportunities available at Tufts, such as dancing with the Tufts Burlesque Troupe for three semesters.
As Huang aptly stated, “The Daily is a really important organization on campus that I’m involved with, and I’ll really miss being able to just hang out with these people.”
All that is left to say is that we will miss you all the more. Congratulations on all of your accomplishments at Tufts, Linda, and we cannot wait to watch you thrive.
