Even before stepping foot on Tufts’ campus, Daniel Vos knew he wanted to be a part of the Daily.
“I joined the Daily my [first-year] fall,” Vos said. “I was always interested in journalism in high school, but we didn’t really have a strong newspaper or journalism club, so that was an experience that I was really focused on getting in college.”
Vos joined the News section and never looked back. He began as a staff writer and wrote dozens of articles throughout his Daily career, reporting on a variety of issues facing the university and surrounding communities. He served as executive news editor in fall 2023, and worked on expanding coverage of Tufts’ host cities of Medford and Somerville.
Of the articles Vos has written, two stand out to him as being the most exciting to report on and write about. The first of these aligned with his interest in international relations, the subject for which he earned his degree in December 2024, after his senior fall.
“The article that I had the most fun writing was … about the [Fletcher School] World Peace Foundation director, and there was some controversy between him and some dissidents in Ethiopia, and they were harassing him online,” Vos said. “So we did a news article about it, and it unfolded in a way I didn’t expect, because there were students on campus who also felt a certain way about him and his work, and I was navigating all of that, but it turned out to be a very interesting article.”
Vos’ other favorite writing experience was at the beginning of his semester as the Daily’s executive news editor in August 2023.
“The [resident assistant] union was protesting and there was a bunch of confusion about whether RAs were going to be working at the start of the semester. Just the energy of that … [it was] really a great time to be writing,” Vos said.
In the middle of that same semester, international relations and campus news became even further intertwined. The Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent war in the Gaza Strip created a contentious climate at Tufts. While difficult to navigate for the campus newspaper, Vos believes that the Daily handled coverage of the conflict and its impact gracefully.
“None of us really expected that level of attention to be drawn to the Daily,” Vos explained. “But I do feel like when it all happened, both the News team and the [managing] board … all really tapped into trying to capture a lot of the chaos on campus and recount the events in as impartial a way as possible. We spent hours going through the language, how we were going to present things, if we were giving attention to both sides in a way that was fair. And I think we’re all proud of the way we handled it despite it being truly a chaotic time for news.”
According to Vos, being a part of the Daily, especially a member of the News section, is a unique responsibility to bear while being a student at Tufts.
“You have a real obligation in a way that I don’t think many other things that you can do on campus have,” Vos said. “A lot of people depend on you to produce content, to be on time, to be capturing what’s happening in the community.”
The other significant part of Vos’ experience on the Daily, in addition to reporting, was the opportunity to take on a leadership role while still being a college student.
“You are still very early in your development of skills. At the same time you’re trying to share a little bit of what you’ve learned with other students who are just coming into Tufts. And so, that also motivates you to really push for … something that is, at the end of the day, a student organization, to be something that is truly meaningful.”
Vos plans to attend graduate school for international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science next fall. He believes his experience at the Daily has instilled in him lifelong professional and personal skills.
“The Daily probably assisted in that in countless ways,” Vos said. “I think I developed a really strong work ethic, I developed hard writing skills and also, leadership skills that I think I can apply to a future career. I also think the network that the Daily provides is something that I’ll hold onto for life.”
