Guillem Colom is a features editor. He is a senior studying political science and can be reached at guillem.colom@tufts.edu.
On Jan. 14, outgoing President Joseph Biden bestowed the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) to approximately 400 scientists and engineers. PECASE is the highest accolade granted by the U.S. government on scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.
To say that the past 100 days transformed the trajectory of American history would be a gross understatement.Our generation has experienced significant upheavals merely in the past few years: the desolation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing threats against elected officials and the rollback of legal precedents, ranging from abortion rights to long-standing environmental regulations.
Summer is fast approaching, and Washington, D.C. is ramping up for performances in the arts! One of the most surprising facts I’ve learned about the city is the large extent to which it serves as a critical cultural hub for entertainment. Internationally recognized artists, hailing from different genres like hip-hop, shoegaze and hyperpop, perform in D.C. on most weekends, energizing the city with the thousands of people attending these events.
As one of the main cultural hubs on the eastern seaboard, Washington, D.C. fosters a strong intellectual culture of discovery through its museums. As Tufts students, we’re spoiled with fairly easy access to incredible museums in Somerville, Cambridge, Boston and the outskirts of Massachusetts through the T.
If New York is the city that never sleeps, Washington, D.C. is the city that always eats.
After getting out of the Uber with four of my closest friends, we slowly struggled down the steep steps leading into the Italian Embassy. It was February 10th, the Saturday before Valentine’s Day, and we were approaching the Embassy’s Valentine’s Day Gala. Waiting outside the entrance were the regulars: military men, congressional staffers and couples in mid-life crises. I’ll get to that last part eventually. But for now, I want to outline the chronicle of how we — a group of 20-year-old know-nothings — bargained and earned our attendance at a formal event like this. Others might call it cheating, but I call it the hustle.
It’s a frigid Saturday afternoon in the middle of a January snowstorm, and I just convinced myself that it would be a great idea to walk 25 minutes in near 15-degree temperatures to Georgetown. I planned on meeting one of my hometown friends who’s a senior at Georgetown University for coffee, and she informed me that she was bringing along another mutual friend who attended American University. He majored in international relations, and I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to yap about the ignominious failures of Kevin McCarthy.
Scandals, special interests, George Santos: Washington, D.C. is the ‘swamp’ of American politics. National media outlets clamor to cover the next big political controversies from supposed adults. However, the perspectives and experiences of undergraduates living and working in D.C. are often left out of meaningful conversations on what the demands of political life mean for a future generation of leaders already confronting the effects of political decisions.
The initiatives to address Tufts’ connections to slavery are broad and growing in strength. As previous and current Tufts students contribute to conversations and scholarship surrounding Tufts’ connections to slavery, community stakeholders outside of Tufts are not only continuing to address this history but seeking ways to improve public knowledge of it.
Editor’s note: Nina Joung is a former executive features editor of the Daily. Joung was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
