Dear Reader, 

As I write the very last article I’ll ever contribute to The Crusader, there are some thank you’s in order: 

First, thank you to you, the reader. Your support and generosity is what makes The Crusader do what it does: inform our community. You are our reason. 

Next, I want to thank The Crusader staff. I am so, so proud of all the hard work we’ve put into the newspaper this year, yielding a historic six (six!) issues that included a special election edition that won a Headliners in Education Award and a February edition in honor of Black History Month that won a JEANC award for Front Page Design. I know I can be rather stern or sarcastic or scary sometimes (wait, is that why you guys finished your assignments?) but I’m so glad I was able to get to know you all and form genuine relationships. 

Whether it’s dealing with me literally hovering over your shoulder to make sure you’re designing the new pull quote correctly (riveting stuff, I know), or coming in on weekends to finish production over pizza, Y’all. Pulled. Through. Be proud of yourselves. 

And of course, I can’t forget Ms. Sutton. As editor-in-chief this year, I saw more than ever how much (often thankless) dedication you put into the newspaper. It’s not just any adviser who’s going to pull near all-nighters to make sure every word of the pdf is perfect before we send it to the printer, or any adviser who’s going to inspire the amount of students you have into pursuing journalism as an actual career. Your passion in ensuring truth, quality and integrity for what many would scoff at as “just a student newspaper” is emblematic of the caring that the world desperately needs more of. 

Whenever visitors come to 207, you always quip that you’re just here to provide snacks and supervision. The truth is, though, you do so much more than that: you’re the beating heart of The Crusader. 

To the incoming Editor-in-Chief Daniella Lainez ’26 and Managing Editor Ishaan Gupta ’26, I have no doubt you guys will make a fantastically formidable team and bring our newspaper to new heights. You guys have been such dedicated and amazing editors in the past couple years I’ve known you and I graduate with complete faith that The Crusader is in good hands. 

Finally, I want to end with (what I think is) an important message. When I first joined the newspaper team as a freshman, truthfully I was just curious about another extracurricular to put on college applications. But I quickly became genuinely passionate about journalism and the crucial role it serves in both democracy and strife. 

That’s why I’m so concerned right now about the unprecedented attacks on our free press in America. With the Associated Press being banned from the White House for refusing to use “Gulf of America;” the Trump administration now hand picking which journalists can ask questions of the president; the featured comedian (who traditionally pokes fun at the president) being cancelled from the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner; funding being pulled from PBS and NBC; the flurry of lawsuits Trump has brought against news outlets for (what he deems) unfavorable coverage of him; the Tufts University student detained without warrant by ICE for simply writing an op-ed in her school newspaper; and the Federal Communications Commission mounting investigations against CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, and NPR, it’s no surprise that the United States has plummeted to 57th place in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index. 

To put this in perspective, for years the US was deemed “satisfactory” by Reporters Without Borders. Now, it’s “problematic.” Our press freedom currently falls among developing countries like Uruguay and Gambia. All these moves in conjunction have created an increasingly hostile environment for American journalists, who are more concerned than ever about their ability to report without retribution. There’s a reason our government is trying to silence the press: that’s because journalism matters. 

I’ll end with a quote that has had a profound effect on guiding my life, with the hopes of it inspiring you, too. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” In my opinion? The truth will always be more important than fear. So think critically. Speak boldly. Write courageously. The country–and world–needs young people’s voices. It needs your voice. 

With my most sincere love and gratitude, 

Angela Jia ’25

2024-2025 Editor-in-Chief