The Daily Northwestern — Graduation Issue 2023

The Daily Northwestern

Find your reason to show up every day

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

I spent much of my sophomore winter in a bad place. Sure, emotionally — we were in the throes of a global pandemic, who wasn’t going through it? But in this sense, I meant it literally.

That quarter, I was the Design Editor for The Daily, and I was single-handedly responsible for putting together a print paper twice a week.

To do so required a trek to Norris University Center and The Daily’s offices, where I could access all the technology I needed. On Sundays and Wednesdays, I’d make my trip to the newsroom around 6 p.m., preparing myself for the work ahead.

If you were on campus at this point in time, you’ll definitely remember that pretty much everything was shut down. That included Norris. So for three of the coldest months of the year, amid a global pandemic, I would be the only person in our student center, working six to ten hour shifts. Oh, and my reward for all my hard work on most nights? A 25 minute walk home, often in the snow, because I was usually done after SafeRide stopped operating for the night. I look back on those nights and I

truly don’t know how I did it — I’ve even been unable to explain why I stayed on The Daily when friends have asked.

This spring has been my first on-campus quarter without The Daily in my life, and it’s given me a lot of time to reflect. I’ve spent a sizable portion of that time trying to answer that very question, and it’s only recently that I’ve identified the reason I didn’t quit when I was strongly considering doing so.

My birthday that year happened to fall on an unseasonably cold day that winter. As luck would have it, that was also a publication day. With a pandemic-struck staff and fewer people capable of putting together a print paper than I could count on one hand, I wasn’t able to take the night off. So that evening, I made my trip to Norris and met with other editors to plan the print paper.

It wasn’t far into the evening when I got a text from a friend. “I’m outside, come let me in!” So I made my way down the 24 hour stairs — a staple of the Daily experience — and was greeted by a handful of my closest friends, shivering while carrying pizza, a cookie cake and a pack of Target margaritas. All Daily staffers, they were working remotely tonight like the rest of the paper. I’d initially prepared to spend that evening alone and celebrate later, but they insisted on joining me late into the night.

For most of that quarter — honestly, most of that year — I, like many around me, felt incredibly alone. And late nights in a student center that could absolutely seem haunted if you’re the only person in the building definitely didn’t help. But through all of it, even when it would have been easier to stay in bed, the friends I made

at The Daily would consistently show up.

The days between now and graduation have dropped into the single digits, and it’s been months since I last edited an article in our offices, where I’ve returned one last time to put together our graduation issue. There was a time where I was worried my Daily friends would fall off the face of the earth after one of us left the publication. We were trapped in a newsroom together for dozens of hours each week — I was sure the absence of that built-in time would change our relationship. When it became clear that I was the one who would be the last to leave, I didn’t know what to expect, especially given the workload of running a student publication. But time and time again, the friends I made on The Daily were there to support me in ways no other friends would be able to understand.

As I look back on my time at The Daily, I can’t say I won’t have my regrets. I’ll always wonder what my life would be like if I’d taken a different path at any number of intersections. But I know I won’t ever regret the fact that I found a reason to show up, day in and day out. And more than that, I found people who would show up for me in the same way. I’m excited for some healthy distance from The Daily, but I’ll continue searching for the rest of my life to find the right places to invest pieces of myself. As you embark on your next journey, I hope you find those places too.

- JACOB FULTON

MAIA SPOTO

When I think about The Daily, my first memory isn’t of chasing down city politicians on election night. Or of combing through government documents to edit investigations line by line.

It’s of former editor-in-chief Jacob Fulton’s palms sizzling as he bleached my hair white with his bare hands. A reckless choice, maybe, but it

was my last night as City Editor, and I needed the catharsis. It was a more-than-full-time job, and I was tired.

Our city desk — just one of several desks churning out daily content — is effectively a metro paper for a city of 80,000. We have the resources and staff to cover hundreds of stories each quarter. We see our reporting influence local policy and help people become more civically engaged.

At the same time, because we report on our neighbors and classmates, we have a front-row view of how our journalism falls short and harms people. On occasion, national news publications share scathing editorials that dissect how we’ve dropped the ball. More often, and more

painfully, we hear it from those close to us. That’s intense responsibility to bear. It makes you want to change things. Sometimes you only have the energy or will to alter parts of yourself, like the night Jacob fried my hair and I forgot to bring the gloves.

But as student journalists who are more or less self-governed, we’re in a unique position to experiment. I’d argue we have a responsibility to push the limits of what journalism can do for audiences. And although we’ve failed over and over, I’ve also seen a real transformation in how we engage with community members over the last four years.

I’ve worked alongside countless Daily staffers as we’ve created online forums to help neighbors navigate the confusion of booking COVID-19 vaccines. We’ve hosted listening sessions to understand what information people need to know, and how they want to receive it. We’ve

Five City desk ways to say “I love you”

the city desk.

Try something different ILANA AROUGHETI

In many ways, everyone who’s written for the Daily Northwestern in the last hundred years or so has the same story — the epic highs of laughing on the couches between rewrites, the crushing lows of editing on the third floor of Norris until the sun rises. For better or for worse, I’m so happy I was able to be part of the never-ending story of The Daily for the past four years — and learn so much about Evanston in the process.

Writing and editing during the COVID-19 pandemic my sophomore year, I’ve often said that I feel as though The Daily saved my life. Sopho more winter was my first time on the editorial board, as Development and Recruitment editor with the fabulous Haley Fuller (Medill ‘22, MSJ ‘23). No matter what was going on in my quaran tined personal life, by six o’clock Haley and I had to be ready on FaceTime. I felt really grounded by the acts of reporting and producing. Since then, I’ve served as copy chief, D&I chair, housing issue editor, assistant city editor, co-city editor and In Focus editor. My real love affair, though, was with

My city quarter was definitely my most rewarding on the Daily, even though it was a blur. I was in the unique position of getting to work as one of two city editors, and I still share at least half of my brain with fellow Spring ‘22 city editor Jorja Siemons. I had such a great time over the years covering education, policing, city council, arts, queer issues and especially housing. It was awesome getting to pass that passion on by editing, budgeting and sharing coverage on my favorite beats. Working on the city desk generally took me outside of my Northwestern bubble and taught me more about Evanston, and about empathy. I learned that writing ten million pitches is a fantastic way to quell my anxiety, and while I think

Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center. And yet, spending hours at the council chamber press box chugging Yerba Mates and listening to passionate public comments appealed to my nosy side and gave me a stronger grip on what Evanston residents really care about. Having sealed my friendship with co-editor Jorja Siemons at a meeting, I know I’m not the only one.

Going Biss-spotting around Evanston

City editors in the class of 2023 and beyond have spoken in depth to and about Mayor Daniel Biss, and the relationship becomes somewhat of a desk-wide obsession long after you’ve

completely revamped our newsletter and website to make both more comprehensive. We’ve trained our reporters to be more transparent with sources and more thoughtful about how they frame coverage. I would list names, but there are too many people to thank, because these kinds of initiatives require an entire newsroom’s support.

To the journalists at The Daily who keep up this work, I offer the words of Darryl Holliday, who co-founded City Bureau in Chicago: “The journalists we need today are not heroic observers of crisis — they are conveners, facilitators, organizers, educators, on-demand investigators, and community builders. Most of all, they strengthen the systems that make communities resilient.”

Go serve your neighbors and classmates, and each other. Try to build a different, better kind of journalism.

someone who knows the power of the city desk before it’s ever revealed to you.” - Jacob Fulton, my brilliant and lovely roommate who slowly converted me into a city desk nerd just so we could finally geek out about local politics together. It’s been fun.

Visiting a local business after covering it for the desk

From Picnic to Philz to Pasta Luna, Evanston’s best bites taste just a little bit better when you’re sharing them with someone who once helped you break some delicious business news. Bonus points if you fade into a reverie together when you hit the first farmer’s market of the year (long time no see, Fred’s Bread).

Making tea for another writer

MADISON SMITH

If one thing has stayed constant throughout college, it’s that I love lists. I make lists for everything. To do lists, bucket lists, shopping lists, lists of poems to read, lists of restaurants to eat at, lists of people I need to text back, all kinds of lists. Recently, I found a list from 2015, my freshman year in high school:

Things To Do Before I Go To College:

- Learn to play guitar (classic)

- Publish something I wrote (said the future journalism major) - Swim a qualifying sectionals time (let’s go swim team)

- Get a lead in a play (and good for 14 year-old me, honestly)

- Get into an Ivy League college (awkward)

- Speak a second language fluently (je ne sais toujours pas parler français)

- Mastery on all regents (if you’re from New York, you know what I mean)

- Honors in all of my classes (of course)

- Win a MUN Conference (for those of us in-theknow, that’s Model UN)

- Learn how to do winged eyeliner (real)

(Ambitious, but, for the record, I managed to check four whole things off of that list by the time I graduated.)

I spent so much of high school trying to get into college. Not through academic rigor or real, deep learning, but through letters on a page, a transcript and a resume that I could hand to colleges and say, “Here I am! Let me in!” I shot for honors programs, Ivy Leagues, winning conferences and achieving mastery, but, looking back on it, I hated all the steps I had to take to move me closer to those goals. Sure, I got a little ego boost whenever report cards were released, but small victories in between hours

of trying to force myself to study and floundering over a TI-Nspire calculator didn’t make up for how absolutely unfulfilled I was.

I thought being in college would magically turn me into an academic, but, here I finally am, about to graduate from Northwestern University, sitting down to write my senior column only a couple hours before I have to send it to my editor finally realizing — maybe academia isn’t for me.

My high school was small. Like, really small. Like, I graduated with the same 90 kids I went to kindergarten with, small. I was a complete stereotype: girl wants to escape her boring, small-town life, and move to a big fancy university. I would daydream of all the new people I would meet, lots of new people, people who were passionate and interesting and fun, people with new perspectives, people I wanted to be friends with and wanted to be friends with me. My bucket lists may have been covered in gold-plated ambitions and a diligent nose-to-the-grindstone mentality, but not once did I dream of lecture halls or library study sessions. What I wanted was a community. What I wanted was people.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been adding to a new list, one that I’m actually excited about, one that’s actually for me:

On sunrises and futures for FGLI staffers

quitting The Daily Northwestern.

Two lists before I leave MAX LUBBERS

It was March 6, 2020, and I was waiting for the sun to rise. This was my first time staying up with editors on the last night of publication for the quarter — a Daily Northwestern tradition. The clock had hit 2 a.m., or maybe 4; I didn’t check to be sure, because back then, I usually felt out of place and out of time in the newsroom. I knew I should’ve felt relieved to stay up as a ritual, rather than to finish work for the paper. But it seemed I was constantly waiting for the sun to come up, looking to the horizon only to be denied light.

As a first-generation student, I couldn’t quite imagine a future in journalism, even as I worked for it. So that morning, as the winter wind cut through my coat and the clouds muted the sun’s glare, I thought about

Spoiler alert: I didn’t. Actually, I joined Edit Board a few weeks later and then stayed through the fall quarter of my junior year. When I think back to that sunrise, back to my freshman year, I wonder what would have happened if I’d called it quits then. I realize I could have avoided a lot of long nights if I did. And I don’t want to romanticize these struggles. But I can’t imagine actually quitting. I mean, I held on to The Daily with a strange strength – I held on to The Daily even as it refused to hold on to me. That sometimes embarrasses me now. But it makes me angry when people assume I stayed because I refused to recognize my own suffering. Because here’s the truth: I was acutely aware of the good and the bad, even from the very beginning.

So what made me keep going? This is the moment where I could say: I stayed for the community that needed news; I stayed for the staffers who were my friends, and even for the ones who weren’t. And these statements are absolutely true. But I also think that I didn’t know how to stop.

My experience isn’t unique. Northwestern is full of overachievers. But I worked seemingly all my life to get into a college that could cover my expenses. Once I finally got here, I felt an extra pressure to make the most of it. At the same time, I was navigating a sea of Canada Goose jackets and the constant culture shock of private school stories. When I remember some parents pay $80,000 for their students to attend, I still feel surprised, though my peers’ attitudes certainly remind me of this fact. Knowing I didn’t “belong” made me feel simultaneously pushed out and that much more serious about staying in spite of it all.

That said, I despise pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps narratives, and I don’t want to make my experience sound like one. It is, on many levels, so hard to be FGLI on this paper. For a lot of my peers, The Daily is their only job. Small stipends for Edit Board positions are something to laugh about. For this and so many other reasons, my feelings about The Daily are complicated. And I cannot sum them all up here.

So I’ll end with a message to any first-gen and/ or low-income student at this paper: Listen. You

Things To Do Before The End of The Summer:

- Find an apartment with a big window near the red line (and friends).

- Poetry circle! With [redacted] and [redacted]!

- Host another dinner party with [redacted].

- Continue working on documentary with [redacted].

- Figure out film equipment access.

- Relearn how to play the drums, convince people to start a band with me.

- Finally paint a rock on the lakefill!! With [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], [redacted], and [redacted] <3

- Go to one of [redacted]’s wrestling shows in Chicago with [redacted].

- Save up to go on a trip this September! Maybe meet up with [redacted] in Berlin or [redacted] in The Philippines??

- SIX FLAGS

I’ll never be able to thank my 14 year-old self enough for all of her lists, her work, her endurance. I’m so grateful she got me here. But if college has taught me anything, it’s that I need people. I’m fulfilled through friendship. And care. And love. And community. And if anyone asks, that’s what I’m doing after graduation.

deserve to look off into the horizon and feel hopeful. You deserve to imagine a future in journalism, if you want it.

If you can’t stay at The Daily, or even in this industry, that’s okay. If you do stay, I wish I could simply say: Take care of yourself. Yet I realize it’s not so easy. You need structures of support. You deserve people to take care of you.

I helped advocate for a stipend program for lowincome staffers at The Daily, and if you’re not aware of that program – please apply. But I know more solutions are needed to create a truly welcoming and supportive space. The labor of building those solutions should not always fall on us, so don’t feel bad if you don’t have the energy. But if you need advice on how to advocate, please reach out. If you just want to talk to someone who gets it – and isn’t like, your pseudo-boss or pseudocoworker – please reach out. (This would seriously make me happy, so if you’re thinking about it, don’t hesitate. My email is by.max.lubbers@gmail.com and my twitter is @maxlubbers).

On that unfinished feeling of an ending – a fitting feeling, because I never really seemed “done” with The Daily – I’ll say, for the last time: Peace, Love, Daily, Max

From start to finish, the Daily was always an adventure JOHN RIKER

Patrick Andres was livid. Carly Schulman seemed ambivalent. Josh Hoffman appeared amused.

Our four-person road trip to the Northwestern-Wisconsin football game on Nov. 13, 2021 was nearing its end, but rather than continue on the route, I veered off the exit toward the IKEA location in Schaumburg, Ill. The detour flew under the radar until I pulled into the parking lot and turned off the ignition. Like a basketball coach calling a timeout at the end of a crucial basketball game, we needed to flip momentum after witnessing a 35-7 shellacking in bonechilling Madison and I was certain IKEA was the reset we needed.

The audible worked. Patrick, one of the other Gameday writers, completely changed his opinion. Carly snapped photos of me, Josh and Patrick lounging on beds in our full dress attire and at fake poker tables. We didn’t purchase

anything, but the camaraderie and content was as compelling and memorable as anything to come out of the game itself.

Naturally, when it came time to reflect on my time at the Daily, there could be no better exercise than to revisit IKEA with Patrick, a year and a half after his life-changing revelation. I’m about to move another time zone west over the summer, so I hardly fit the target customer for the famed furniture store, but as soon as we ascended up the escalator to the first displays, I could tell this trip would be worth it.

Our self-guided tour on the store’s top level took us through the bedroom displays. As a kid, these were my favorite — I always imagined myself in different cities and apartments on comfy beds and couches. As a football writer for two years with the Daily, those travel dreams came true, all while covering a sport I loved. From Big Ten road games and hotel stays in Lincoln, Minneapolis and Iowa City to my final football feature in Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine, these trips and the meals and hotel room memories within them comprise the highlight reel of my time at the Daily.

Next up came a less aesthetically glamorous but even more meaningful section to me, the office spaces and desks.

The Daily Northwestern S yllabu S yearbook

Rebecca Aizin

Ilana Arougheti

Samantha Boas

Molly Burke

Gaby Carroll

Alex Chun

Jacob Fulton

Sara Gronich

IL 60208-2517

Josh Hoffman

Minjee Jung

Dugan

Kenaz-Mara

Max Lubbers

Jordan Mangi

Delaney Nelson

Josh Perry

Bailey Richards

John Riker

Emily Sakai

Madison Smith

Rayna Song

Maia Spoto

Iris Swarthout

Olivia Yarvis

Meher Yeda

The Daily, Syllabus Yearbook & SPC would not exist without you.

Thank you for your professionalism, determination & hard work during your time here.

Best wishes & good luck in your future endeavors, Stacia, Chris & the SPC Board of Directors

During my sophomore year, I felt crushed that I never ran a desk or served on the Daily’s edit board, but the setbacks turned out to be a blessing. Running the sports desk in the fall of my junior year, the first quarter in a year-anda-half that the Daily’s newsroom operated in person, feels like Camelot in retrospect.

I joined forces with three sophomores I’d never met in person before, Charlotte, Lawrence and Skye, and somehow we covered five sports while balancing other editing roles and sports beats. Showing movies on the TV, meeting incoming writers, planning out stories, taking out targets in our word assassins game and welcoming alumni like Michael Wilbon and Christine Brennan — all while spending time with great friends and talented journalists — was a dream. And coming back the following fall as Gameday editor and getting the invaluable opportunity to team up with all three in covering the 1-11 Wildcats succeeded in recreating that magic.

Our final stop before heading out brought the two of us to the picture frames section, the only IKEA section where I’ve actually bought a product.

I’m obsessed with taking pictures and hanging them on my wall, and one glance around my

senior year apartment reveals just how special my four years on the Daily have been. In one collage alone are pictures from my October meetup with my first sports editor, Andrew Golden, a football tailgate (research purposes, of course) and morning sunrise from the Daily’s last night of publication. Two frames above the radiator hold pictures from my first two years, including prints of women’s basketball’s Big Ten title win in 2020 and a press credential from the 2020-21 men’s basketball season.

I can’t forget the 11- by 17-inch picture frame that hangs above my desk, featuring the national champion Northwestern field hockey team on the Daily’s front cover. That was my final night as sports editor and the best, as well as the coolest sports moment I’ve witnessed. Tucked into the corners of the frame are two Polaroid pictures, one of myself in a mask in the sports desk chair and another of the sports desk crew posing in a group costume on Halloween. Everything within that frame, from the emotion and spectacle of sports to the journalistic excellence of Skye, Charlotte and Gaby Carroll’s coverage of field hockey’s grandest stage to the teamwork required to make any news outlet run, represents why I feel so grateful and what my time at the Daily has meant to me.

DONOR HONOR ROLL

Gabriel Abbott

Bella Abbrescia

Maayan Abouzaglo

Alec Abramson

Emily Abt

Samad Acklin

Nikhil Aggarwal

Karan Agrawal

Chima Aharanwa

Judy Ahn

Naomi Aisen

Gabrielle Alava

Connor Alcock

Patrick Ales

Aino Alkio

Alejandra Almonte

Luc Almony

Omar Alneyadi

Julia Ammer

Paulina Anasis

Regan Andringa-Seed

Sara Anglin

Gyaan Antia

Orrian Arnold

Ilana Arougheti

Georgia Assanuma Dutra

Davit Avagyan

Yabsra Ayele

Sarah Baca

Benjamin Bade

Christine Bae

Ibrahima Bah

Rohil Bahl

Ansaar Baig

Grace Bailey

Nicholas Baird

Nicholas Bakaysa

Max Baliga

Katrina Baniak

Madeline Banich

Isabelle Banin

Natalie Bartolomei

Ella Bartt

Brian Bechler

Matthew Becker

Victoria Benefield

Justin Benjamin

Jack Benson

Evan Bergen Epstein

Faye Berger

Andre Bergeron

Sami Berisha

Jaime Berkovich

Andrew Bernstein

Mark Berry

Lucas Bezerra

Ishaan Bhasin

Virad Bhatti

Carina Biar

Annalise Biesterfeld

Alin Bilsel

Blodwen Bindas

Heather Birdsell

Anna Blachar

Haakon Black

Maria Blanchard

Jeffrey Blibo

Maya Blumovitz

Nathalie Boadi

Samantha Boas

Sofia Boczkowski

Ryley Boddeker-O’Connor

Dominik Bogacz

Delaney Bondoc

Callum Bondy

Samuel Boonstra

Efthimios Bournias

Jake Boxer

Kylie Boyd

Lily Boyd

Josif Bozovic

Skye Brabson

Helen Bradshaw

Phillip Bragg

Abigail Brandt

Hayley Brener

Tabor Brewster

Charlotte Brightbill

Katherine Brown

Madeline Brown

Sarah Brown

Xanthe Brown

Kevin Brunner

Anthony Bucciarelli

Joshua Bucher

William Buchsbaum

Aspen Buckingham

Emily Budarapu

Manuel Buendia

Elizabeth Bulat

Anne Burgett

Molly Burke

Bailey Burman

Caroline Burnett*

Tahj Burnett

Shantha Burt

Alyssa Burton

Joshua Butera

Nicholas Byrne

Maria Caamano Garcia

Javiera Andrea Cabezas Parra

Elias Caicedo

Lauren Calderon

Crockett Callaway

Lucas Calvera

Matt Camel

Natalia Camino-Cantu

John Cao

Oscar Cardenas

Brenno Cardoso

Maria Carini

Isabelle Carlisle

Arianna Carpati

Alexander Carroll

Benjamin Caterine

Joseph Cavazos

Esther Cha

Jessie Chaiet

Edwin Chalas-Cuevas

Maria-Eleni Chalkia

Cameron Chang

Haley Chang

Min Kwan Chang

Sophie Chang

Michael Chaplygin

Phoebe Chapnick-Sorokin

Elana Charlson

Benjamin Chasen

Nam Chit Chau

Talia Chau Rivera

Adam Chen

Hongjia Chen

Huaxuan Chen

Jessica Chen

Manqi Chen

Michael Chen

Sabrina Chen

Ting-Chu Chen

Irina Cheng

Polina Cherepanova

Rachel Chiu

Catherine Cho

Sahun Cho

Samantha Cho

Ji Hye Choi

Joseph Choi

Max D. Choi

Zachary Chorny

Magdalena Christensen

Radoslaw Chrzanowski

Alexandra Chu

Yvan Chu

Rachel Chung

Ethan Churilla

David Ciesla

Marcus Cisco

Catherine Clements

Eleanor Colligan

Preston Collins

Christian Colon

William Conboy

Isaac Conner

Alyssa Connor

Marco Contreras

Justin Cooper

Chloe Cope

Dana Corbin

Chase Correia

Delia Corridon

Michael Cosentino

Diogo Costa

William Cousin

Rebecca Covington

Erin Coykendall

Cameron Cozzi

Anna Craver

Lily Creed

Arianna Crockett

Celia Crompton

Briana Crowley

Kimberly Cruz Mendez

Fatima Cubillas Flores

Cesar Cuevas Jimenez

Nathan Dahms

Wesley D’Alelio

Cooper Daley

Darya Daneshmand

Natalie Daninhirsch

Benjamin Danner

Jackson Darby

Thomas Darragh

Andrew Davis

Elizabeth Davis

Erica Davis

Kahsaia de Brito

Alberto Antonio De La Isla

Joshua Dean

Grace DeAngelis

Olivia DeGulis

Hadley Delany

Amor Delarosa

Hannah Dembosky

Marc Deneve

Grace Deng

Victoria Deng

AJ Denhoff

Renan Dennig

Ria Desai

Rahul Devathu

Brigid Devine

Hallie DeVore

Sharat Dhananjaya

Parveen Dhanoa

Akshyasri Dhinakaran

Nicholas DiStefano

Joshua Divak

Grace Doakes

Connor Doolan

Asterios Dougalis

Sean Dougherty

Patrick Dwyer

Madison Ellis

Amina Elmasry

Sally Elting

Owen Elton

Fortune Emmanuel-king

Arlo Encarnacion

Annie Epstein

Eric Epstein

Olivia Escousse

Rachel Estafanous

Viviana Estevez

Joshua Ezrol

Amy Fan

Elizabeth Farassat

Alexandra Feigin

Chenjunyi Feng

Jingyao Feng

Mikaela Fenn

Benjamin Finkelstein

Dylan Finn

Arella Flur

Benjamin Forbes

Zachary Forbes

Kayla Fortino

Helen Foster

Rhodes Fotopulos

Madeleine Foutes

Zachary Fox

Evains Francois

Sara Frank

Benjamin Fredeen

Jake Freeman

Elizabeth Freiburger

McKenna Frey

Natalie Friedman

Sophie Furlow

Gabriela Furtado Coutinho

Joseph Galindo

Raquel Gallagher

Nina Galvez

Saul Galvez

Carly Galvin

Natan Gamliel

Yi Gao

Samuel Garcia-Bryce

Megan Gauger

Jacob Geil

Asa Geller

Megan Gendelman

Joely Gendler

Aditi Ghei

Isabel Gippo

Delaney Glassner

Brian Gleason

Lance Go

Bradley Goedde

Justine Goeury

Allison Gold

Sasha Goldberg

Matthew Goldschmidt

Adam Goldstein

Sydney Goldstein

Zoe Golub

Victoria Gomez Gil

Jingxuan Gong

Stefani Gonzalez

Alexandra Good

Conner Goodwin

Allyson Gordon

Thomas Gordon

Maya Gorman

Ann Goss

Léa Grandisson

Hannah Grant

Jane Greeley

Olivia Greene

Tyler Greene

Alec Greenwald

Julia Greenwood

Jenna Greenzaid

Morgan Greifer

Denis Gribincea

Victoria Grisanti

Grace Gronowski

Andre Gu

Marisa Gudiño

Nicolas Guerra

Olivia Guerra

Llura Gund

Amy Guo

Joanna Guo

Jocelyn Gutierrez

Amelia Haag

Hannah Hachamovitch

Carolyn Hagler

Lydia Hahm

Theodore Hall

Sophia Haloulos

Peyton Halsey

Kathleen Hancuch

Patrick Hayden Harb

Lucy Harrington

Andrew Hartman

Laya Hartman

Kacee Haslett

Derek Hassan

Sydney Hastings-Smith

Makenzie Hattig

Christian Healy

Kimberlee Hebdon

Owen Hefferren-Harkless

Nathan Hefner

Julia Heilberg

Danielle Helfer

Benjamin Helmold

Catherine Heming

Lindsay Hendrix

Kaniya Hester

Nathan Heyen

Robert Hickmott

Mary Hilbert

Drew Hill

Camila Hirani

Annika Hiredesai

Grace Hochberg

Joshua Hoffman

Matthew Holleran Meyer

Timothy Hong

Haley Hooper

Thomas Hoos

Markie Hopkins

Caden Howell

Abby Hsiao

Serena Hsieh

Sarah Hsu

Haoyu Hu

Bettina Huang

Hannah Huang

Jason Huang

Jason Huang

Rebecca Huang

Yining Huang*

Dana Hubbell

Madeleine Hughes

Jackson Hugill

Emily Hull

Heather Humbert

Samantha Humphrey

Luke Hunter

Mitchell Huntley

William Hutchinson

Kyle Hwang

Noah Igram

Je-Woo Im

Jason Irias

Harrison Israel

John Izzo

Solomon Jackson

Catherine Jacob

Katherine Jahns

Aryan Jain

Meghna Jain

Rishi Jain

Owen Janssen

Jasmine Javaheri

Siyabonga Jele

Gregory Jeon

Yunsik Jeong

Peining Jia

Stanley Jia

Jerry Jiang

Olivia Johansson

Isabelle Johnson

Lyra Johnson

Matthew Johnson

Christian Johnston

Brandon Jones

Molly Jones

Kiva Joseph

Minjee Jung

Samuel Jung

Tebogo Kabelo

Katz Kadlic

Natalia Kadolph

Sara Kadoura

Tomo Kanda

Xi Kang

Molly Kaplan

Kirsten Kash

Andrew Katchmar

Haozhe Ke

Avery Keare

Refilwe Kebadireng

Allison Kelley

Kade Kelley

Lauren Kelly

Huma Khan

Omar Khatib

Ali Kilic

Kelly Killorin

Katherine Kim

Kevin Kim

Rachel Kim

Suyeon Kim

Ye June Kim

Zachary Kim

Jared Kimmel

Yasemin Kingham

Vanessa Kjeldsen

Adam Klimek

Edward Ko

Jenna Koeppel

Genevieve Kosciolek

Katherine Kosup

Aarthi Kottapalli

Maren Kranking

Derek Krantz

Julia Kruger*

Sarina Ku

Kendall Kubis

Tanya Kukreja

Adhya Kumar

Riya Kumar

Ashley Kwak

Emily Lam

Elizabeth Lamarre

Miles Lankford

Anastasia Lantsova

Rowan Lapi

Annika Larson

Olivia Lathrop

Giorgio Laudati

Justin Lautenberg

Kate Lawson

Alexandra Lazar

Jared Lazar

OCTOBER 27, 2019

‘F—k John Evans’ painted

THROUGH THE

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Students protest Jeff Sessions’ speech, police presence

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

Evanston City Council passes local reparations fund

MARCH 1, 2020

Northwestern women’s basketball beats Illinois to win Big Ten regular season title for the first time since 1990

MARCH 4, 2021

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

MAY 12, 2021

University President Morton Schapiro announces retirement

SEPTEMBER 26, 2021

No more excuses’: Students protest Greek life after series of reported druggings at fraternity houses

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

Northwestern downs No. 1 Purdue in epic 64-58 comeback

JANUARY 12, 2023

NUGW union with United Electric, Radio and Machine Workers of America authorized followingelectiontwo-day

MARCH 16, 2023

Northwestern wins second NCAA tournament game in history with win over Boise

Daniel Biss elected mayor of Evanston

OCTOBER 11, 2021

Rebecca Blank named next president of Northwestern

DECEMBER 19, 2020

Northwestern plays in second Big Ten championship game in three years, falls to Ohio State

OCTOBER 18, 2021

NU dining workers ratify agreement with Compass Group

OCTOBER 27, 2022

Northwestern hosts guests, panels to commemorate 50 years of Title IX

AUGUST 11, 2022

Michael Schill named next president of Northwestern

APRIL 12, 2023

One dead, two injured in Clark Street Beach shooting, questions raised about communicationemergency

THE YEARS

MARCH 12, 2020

Big Ten, NCAA cancel all athletic competition until the 2020-21 school year

MARCH 13, 2020

Northwestern reports first case of COVID-19

APRIL 6, 2020

Northwestern announces Spring Quarter will be entirely virtual

NOVEMBER 8, 2020

Evanston celebrates as Joe Biden is declaredelectionpresidential victory

OCTOBER 31, 2020

Police pepper CommunityNorthwesternspray Not Cops protestors,onearresting

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

PHA calls for Greek Life to be abolished

ANUARY 14, 2022

MARCH 19, 2022

MAY 21, 2022

Mayfest Productions brings 50th Dillo Day to the Lakefill

NOVEMBER 22, 2021

Northwestern shuts out Liberty 2-0 to win first national championship in program history

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

Northwestern releases renderings for the rebuilt Ryan

MAY 2, 2023

Students protest conspiracy theorist James Lindsay at NUCR and YAF event

First recipients selected for Evanstonprogramreparations

Ryan Deakin wrestles way to 157-pound national championship

JULY 11, 2022

Rebecca Blank steps down as President-elect after cancer diagnosis, Morton Schapiro to stay on

MAY 28, 2023

Northwestern lacrosse dominates Boston College to win first national title since 2012 and eighth all-time

JUNE 2, 2023

University president Michael Schill inaugurated

MAY 29, 2022

Softball erases early deficit to reach Women’s College World Series

y sity in Q

the Class of 2023 success in their future endeavors.

Abdul Karim Abdur Rahman Raghavulu

Anisetty

Abdullah Imran

Adelaide Uwantege

Aesha Ihab Farouk Mohamed Ahmed

Hussein

Aisha Saad Al-Jassim

Alanoud Mohammed E S Al-Aqeedi

Ali Khalid J.M Al-Thani

Ali Umair Ahmar

Alreem Abdulla N S Al-Khalifa

Alwaleed Khalid A I Al-Marikhi

Antonella Sansalone

Areesha Khan Lodhi

Asmae Nakib

Ayah Amro Y O Shouhdy

Azma Hasina Mulundika

Bader Mohammed M S Alshamlan

Beatrice Zemelyte

Ben Arnold Mwangi

Bizawit Addis Merawi

Buthaina Mohammed S M Al-Mana

Buthaina Saad A H Al-Muhannadi

Chadi Lasri

Dana Hussameddin AlKhiyami

Dana Khaled M H Alawad

Dana Mohamad Maher Said Al-Hayek

Dania Ammar Abdulhameed Abureqaiba

Elyssa Gaddas

Fai Mohammed S A Al-Naimi

Fajar Salem Al-Kubaisi

Farouk Essalhi

Fatima Mohammed S A Al-Mohannadi

Fatma Oueslati

Ghada Ahmad S A Al-Raesi

Habeebah Hany Tharwat Abdelhamid

Hajar Youssef A ElMalem

Hakem Al Meqdad

Haoyun Xue

Haregewoin Zeleke Mehari

Hend Ahmad M I Al-Derbasti

Hissa Mohammed KH T Al-Kuwari

Hoi Leng Iam

Hong ji Feng

James Paul Nyaga Mburu

Jassim Hamad Al-Thani

Jehad Nael AlHallaq

Jiwon Seo

Julia Magdalena Śmietana

Khadija Ahmad

Kholoud Ibrahim M Y Kafoud

Kim Joseph Makhlouf

Lana Mohammad Al-Qatami

Lena Raed Nawaf Al-Homoud

Leticia Mendes Da Costa Bila

Majd Basim Nasr Allah Heikel

Makeda Shimelis Ararso

Malek Abdallah El Bini

Mariam Khamis M K Al-Khulaifi

Mariana Xavier Brito de Araujo

Mary Ann Kuriyan

Mary Jessy Milena Uwikuzo Kaligirwa

Maryam Fahad J A Al-Thani

Maryam Khalid N I Al-Hail

Maryam Zeyad M I Al-Jaidah

Mashael Talal S B Almannai

Maya Amjad M. Alississ

Mo'men Ghanem Ahmad Hasanain

Mohammed Hamad M H Al-Hawal

Mohammed Saleh M M Al-Khulaifi

Monazza Asif Farooqi

Moza Abdulla A H Al-Kamali

Moza Ahmad S. J. Al-Romaihi

Muhammad Abdullah Imran Tahir

Muhammad Shahan Ejaz

Muneera Ibrahim J O Fakhroo

Nadia Mustafa Yaqoub Al Hinai

Nathenael Sisay Gemechu

Neeha Rashid

Noof Ahmad A H Al-Ansari

Noora Abdulrahman Al-Thani

Noura A S AlShantti

Paribesh Sitoula

Peiwen Zou

Princess Jannah Sismar Collado

Raghdan Alhennawi

Rea Singh Mishra

Reema Faisal Al Hajri

Reema Sultan M A Al-Suwaidi

Sadeem Khalid M M Al-Qurashi

Safin Hasan

Sahar Rabih Bou Hamdan Ghanem

Saif Hamad M A Al-Tamimi

Sara Mohammed F A Al-Mana

Sara Yousef A M Muftah

Sarah Shamim

Selenat Bezuayehu Debebe

Shaikha Hassan A A Al-Abdulghani

Shaikha Khalifa H J Al-Thani

Sida Lai

Tala Khalid Bibi

Tasmia Mohamed Jabbar Belal

Tayyaba Imran

Thethe Gwiza Ngalula

William Gitta Lugoloobi

Xingyu Qin

Yara Amr Abdelhamid Mahrous

Yichen Tao

Zeest Marrium

MEHER YEDA

There is so much to say about The Daily Northwestern — yet somehow I don’t think I could ever capture it all into words. Sleepless nights spent editing, drawing, and laying out pages in the digital room. Laughing deliriously with my best friends — over Zoom, in person, and side-by-side in our living room as we groaned every time someone’s Slack notification went off. Running down Sheridan Road at 3 am in an egg

costume on Halloween. Working at The Daily is not for the faint of heart. Looking back, I will greatly cherish the people I’ve met and the time I’ve spent with them, but all of that came at a significant cost to my mental and physical well being.

It wasn’t until I distanced myself from The Daily that I began to realize What Could’ve Been. I wish I could say that I don’t have regrets, but truthfully, who doesn’t?

I don’t want to diminish how difficult it is to be a student journalist, but I also want to end on a positive note. I’ll always be thankful for the memories and the relationships The Daily gave me, and I truly cannot wait to see what the future holds in store for all of us.

Realistically, Norris University Center is not where you want to be at midnight on a Tuesday night. Or any night really.

However, as almost every staffer of The Daily Northwestern knows, nights like that aren’t scarce — especially as you rise through the ranks. When someone told freshman me that, I was thrilled. I was ready for my Rory Gilmore era and to finally live out my dream of working at a college newspaper and make meaningful work for a community.

If someone told 22-year-old graduated me that, I would shiver. But that was the beauty of the Daily: no matter how much strife or homework or fatigue you had, and no matter how hard those nights were sometimes, being surrounded by your friends grinding through those last few event stories that came in at 11

p.m. was just part of the deal.

And it wasn’t always so glamorized as it is when I look back on it now. My junior fall I was managing editor and those were three of the most challenging, isolating months of my life. As someone whose main friend group lay outside the paper, seeing my friends go out on a Thursday while I was working until the wee hours of the night on a print paper was so dif ficult, and sometimes I questioned whether it was a worthy sacrifice.

Were my happiness and mental health worth pushing just a little bit harder to get to that next edit board spot? Just a little more sacrifice and I could secure my future job “for sure”? The answer was no.

I think the key to surviving those midnight scaries was acknowledging when you’ve had enough and when you’ve done enough. After my stint as managing editor, I knew it was time to ease myself out. I gave everything I could to the paper and at the end of the day, that’s all you can do.

I was worried about not fulfilling my dream

of being editor-in-chief. I was always the kind of person who wasn’t satisfied until

Surviving the Norris midnight scaries REBECCA AIZIN

of my life whether that was in extracurricular activities, academics or even friendship circles.

College showed me that didn’t need to always be a priority. I could acknowledge when I’d done enough to set myself up for success, and enjoy the rest of my life. As much as I loved the time I spent on the third floor of Norris, I thrived outside, living my best college life. I finally accepted I didn’t always have to be 1. I could find a balance between work and play. And I’m so grateful to the Daily for teaching me that lesson at a young age and setting me up for success in the “real world.” Without the paper, including all its ups and downs, I wouldn’t be where I am today and I can say that with full confidence. I’ve never learned more in a shorter span of time and I’ve taken away loads of knowledge and even better friends. To all current and future staffers, remember to always challenge yourself but know when it’s time to prioritize you — and treat yourself to that Mod and Starbucks to get through those midnight scaries.

The epic highs and lows of the Daily Sports desk

I took that first shot of my own when I chose to switch into Medill after coming into Northwestern as a theater major. I’d had two good quarters with the Daily, but that’s not a lot of time to base the rest of your life on.

I would never have believed you if you told me coming into this year that Northwestern men’s basketball would take down a number one team and win an NCAA tournament game. As much as my sportswriter side loves when I have the story already most of the way done by the time the final buzzer sounds, the excitement of a game that comes truly down to the wire is so much better. In those last few moments, players have to trust each other and themselves before one finally takes a shot at the game-breaking play.

But jumping in and committing to the Daily and to working in sports is one of the best and most fun decisions I’ve ever made. The Daily gave me so many opportunities I never imagined, and so many of them popped up unsuspectingly.

When I joined the Daily gameday staff and traveled down to North Carolina with my dad to cover our matchup with Duke, Northwestern lost. (They did a lot of that that year.) Right after the press conference ended, I met up with my dad to travel back to my grandparents’ house and finish my story.

I found him sitting alone in the stands, Ted Lasso-style, and he asked if I still had any interest in going to the UNC-UVA game twenty minutes away. We got there just before halftime, were basically right on the field and had an absolute blast. (So sorry to my editor at the time who got my story many hours later as I wrote it in the car on the way back home, but absolutely no regrets.)

To fully experience those spontaneous, joyful moments sports brings, sometimes I had to not come into the newsroom! That same gameday quarter, I wrote a rapid recap in the stands with my friends instead of in the press box because I wanted to experience it at least once that year. The story was still in on time that day, so I’ll take that as a win.

As the few days remaining in my time in

college tick by, the Daily memories that I keep closest to my heart aren’t the ones where I covered a perfectly normal game in a perfectly normal manner (even if that’s what I’m hoping for when I sit down in the press box). They’re the adventures I took in New York City with Joanne Haner and Jacob Fulton after Stephen Colbert got COVID the night we were supposed to see him live. They’re failing spectacularly at one of the basketball commercial break games with Josh Hoffman and John Riker. They’re saying yes to things, even if they might take time away from our more serious journalism. The Daily taught me to take my work seriously, and to have confidence in it, but also to have fun and be spontaneous. I hope I’m not done making those last-minute memories with these people just yet.

My choice between journalism and consulting

RAYNA SONG

During my last 48 hours in Evanston, I found myself penning my senior column. Lying on the sun deck at The Link, basking in the warmth of a sun-drenched day with temperatures in the 80s, I reminisced about the journey of the past four years. Let’s rewind to where it all began.

Back in high school, I applied early decision to Northwestern for its journalism program, and I even expressed my desire to write for The Daily in my Why NU essay. But it wasn’t until I set foot in Evanston as a wide-eyed freshman that I truly understood the fierce competition within student organizations. I faced disap pointment so many times, including when I was rejected from edit board positions at different publications. It took me a few years to realize that in the grand scheme of things, many of these rejections would eventually fade in importance.

When the pandemic hit at the end of my freshman year, everyone was com pelled to go home. I counted myself fortu nate to be able to return to Beijing, where the domestic lockdown was comparatively mild. It was during this period that I delved into vari ous journalism internships, gaining a deeper understanding of China’s media landscape. Throughout my sophomore year, as I jumped from internship to internship (while taking a gap year), my fervor for journalism remained unwavering. I believed it was my calling to give a voice to marginalized communities and raise awareness about critical issues, as idealistic as that might sound.

My faith in journalism persisted until last summer, during my internship with USA Today. I was so fixated on the idea of becom ing a reporter that I overlooked other potential career paths. I had my sights set on the future, but failed to look around. Despite doubts from other students about pursuing journalism — an industry known for its instability, particularly for an international student like myself — I often dismissed those concerns. However, one summer morning, I received an email

Congrats, Grads!

Marketing

Joy Kim

Ari Sloss

Operations

Joelle Chen

Kirsten Lee

Quincy Erickson

Sylvia Denecke

Ted Deddens

Devin Lai

Rose Haselhorst

Programs

Kaissy Yau

Technical

Filip Czarkowski

Ticketing

Gracie Darlington

Aalia Hanif

Harrison Lewis

Teresa Nowakowski

Amanda Wang

We’ll miss you!

Concerts@Bienen salutes the Class of 2023 and wishes its talented, hard-working staff members the best as they head out into the world. Thanks for all the great memories!

THE RUNDOWN ON

FRIDAY, JUNE 9

Baccalaureate Service

5 p.m. at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (Pritzker ’93) will be this year’s commencement speaker, the University announced in a news release Wednesday. He will address Northwestern’s Class of 2023 on June 12 at Ryan Field.

“We’re honored to welcome Gov. J.B. Pritzker back to campus as this year’s commencement speaker,” University President Michael Schill said in the release. “He’s not only the governor of our great state of Illinois, he’s a graduate of Northwestern Law, and along with his wife, M.K., a longtime supporter of the University.”

Pritzker, who has served as Illinois’ 43rd Governor since 2019, will also receive an

Honorary Doctor of Laws. He is a member of the Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain. Pritzker has also started multiple venture capital and investing startups.

Pritzker — a life member of the Northwestern Law Board — and his wife donated $100 million to Northwestern’s School of Law in 2015. NU then renamed the school the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

“I am deeply honored to be invited to join Northwestern University students as this year’s commencement speaker,” Pritzker said in the release. “As a Northwestern law school graduate, this institution holds a special place in my heart.

SATURDAY, JUNE 10

School of Communication Convocation

9 a.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena

SUNDAY, JUNE 11

Medill School of Journalism Convocation

9 a.m. at Ryan Fieldhouse

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Convocation

9 a.m. at Ryan Field

Bienen School of Music

1 p.m. at Ryan Field

McCormick School of Engineering

5 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena

MONDAY, JUNE 12

Commencement

9 a.m. at Ryan Field

School of Education and Social Policy

2:30 p.m. at Ryan Fieldhouse

J.B. PRITZKER COMMENCEMENT 2023

THEEND.