In 1980, 15-year-old Brooke Shields appeared in a series of print and television ads for Calvin Klein. In one particularly memorable commercial, she delivered the brand’s provocative line: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” The ad sparked widespread outrage — largely because of Shields’ age—with numerous networks refusing to air it.
When graduating senior Nate Hall stepped onto Tufts campus, he had no prior experience in journalism — his high school did not have a paper, and he did not expect to join the Daily. Instead, he was all in on doing theater. However, as per the course of many clubs at Tufts, Hall’s friend, rising senior and Daily staff writer, Sam Dieringer, first introduced him to the Daily’s charm at DailyCon in the spring of 2022.
In a wood-paneled practice room on the lower level of Granoff Music Center, graduating senior Matthew Winkler sat down to talk about his love of classical music, his years writing for the Daily and how composer Gustav Mahler changed his life. “I can’t think of the exact time I first heard Mahler,” Winkler said. “I started the trumpet in sixth grade … but I think when I first actually fell in love with the music … [was when] I got a YouTube recommendation for [Mahler’s Symphony] No. 5. … That opening trumpet just kept building, and the depth of emotion overwhelmed me. It was so stormy and dramatic, but also had these profound moments of beauty in the middle of it.”
“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.
For graduating senior Ava Dettling, art is far more than just a mere pastime.
Since its founding in 1980, the Daily has traditionally produced short-form news and culture stories.But graduatingsenior Henry Chandonnet pioneered a new format for the Daily, making way for long-form reporting and striking visuals with The Tufts Daily Magazine.
Graduating senior Ryan Fairfield began writing for the Arts and Pop Culture section of the Daily the second semester of his first year. A double major in film and media studies and political science with a minor in English, Fairfield said he chose to join because he realized he missed writing.
Jiao, a former managing editor, former executive copy editor and current columnist for the Daily, has had to make a huge change when it comes to her career path. An international relations major, she came into this semester with a concrete plan of taking the Foreign Service Officer Test and applying for federal jobs. These plans were dashed when, due to the current Trump administration, federal hiring was frozen, and a week before she planned to take it, the test was canceled indefinitely.
“I remember people being like, ‘Do you like to write? Come to DailyCon!’ And I signed up,” graduating senior Odessa Gaines recalled in her Daily origin story. A staple of the Arts and Pop Culture section (and its spring 2025 executive editor), Gaines’ journey with the newspaper began at the student organization fair during her first year, where her existential need to write encouraged her to join and try something new.
The film industry is a notoriously tough industry to break into, leading many to not even try. That line of thinking tends to extend across smaller film communities, including those on college campuses. The Film and Media Studies Program is relatively new to Tufts’ academic offerings, having only been established in 2015 — but it has already drawn a large crowd of film-lovers.
Light splashes the vinyl floor of a ballet studio. Silhouettes of tree branches flicker in striated patterns as bodies pirouette, sway and plié atop the light and shadow in abstraction. The dancers’ faces are obscured as the movements of their legs and feet fill up the frame. A new composition forms as a vertical foot ‘en pointe’ freezes. The foot stands in graceful defiance of human anatomy, proudly facing the audience as if a painting to be admired. Such a considered vignette opens Josephine Willman’s senior thesis film, “In Space and Time,” a short documentary that examines the transition from pre-professional ballet training to ballet in a college environment.
To all my wonderful reader(s?), I’d like to thank you for coming with me on this YouTuber journey! I wish I had started this series earlier, so I could talk more about some of my favorite video essayists but alas, how time flies. In order to make up for seven semesters without content, I’m ...
Well, we have reached the end of my column. We are here at the final iteration. I spent much time contemplating what I would discuss in today’s “Confessions,” and for the first time, my mind went blank. As a farewell message to you, my dear readers, here are some lessons and tips I hope you’ll take from me — little souvenirs from our time together, pulled from my previous confessions.
The average person would not know what to do with 50 pounds of sand at their disposal — but Tufts senior Bryan Miller is not the average person.
Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe, known mononymously as Tinashe, is a genre-blurring artist whose career has defied simple categorization. As a triple-threat singer, dancer and songwriter, Tinashe is no stranger to the ups and downs of the entertainment industry.
A new genre of music originating from Boston’s indie scene and conservatory institutions is taking root throughout nightclubs in the United States and abroad. These sounds are spearheaded by DJ Chaia, a student in the Harvard University & New England Conservatory of Music Dual Degree Program and the creator of kleztronica, a style that blends traditional klezmer and Yiddish music with techno and house music.
When junior James Hartley attended the O-Show as a first-year in fall 2023, one group in particular caught his attention:BlackOut, Tufts’ all-male step team. Even though he had no dance experience, Hartley was inspired by their performance.Following a club fair event hosted by the Africana Center, he met a member of the team, who encouraged him to audition. Hartley is now the team’s captain.
I have been thrifting since early high school, digging through my small town’s local thrift spots and coming back from every trip with bags full of vintage clothes. Now that I live in Boston, I knew I had to discover what the local thrift scene here had to offer. With the semester ending, here’s a recap of my finds from the 2024–25 school year!
As a film and media studies and political science double major, graduating senior David Rivas Discua is the only FMS senior to do a written thesis. When watching films, viewers may be drawn to the visuals or the sound; however, Rivas’ thesis focuses on the importance and meaning of silence in films.
Sasha Vogel is the only student to present a feature-length screenplay for her senior honors film thesis this year. Titled “Well and Good,” the script is a coming-of-age eco-drama that blends climate justice with human relationships. “It basically centers around a group of college students in a climate justice oriented club, who are trying and failing to form a protest, and trying and failing in their interpersonal relationships at the same time,” Vogel explained.
