Ever wonder how President Monaco takes his tea (spoiler alert: he doesn’t like tea) or what it’s like to live in Gifford House? Before his first commencement here at Tufts on Sunday, check out this “Interview with President Monaco” and get a glimpse into the life of Tony Monaco and his first year at Tufts:

Note: Thought recently posted, this video was filmed earlier this year.

You may be on campus this Sunday for commencement or you may be cheering on your friends and family from afar. Either way, you can get an inside look at the day by following Tufts Commencement 2012 online. We’d love to have you join the conversation, so check out how you can take part:

• Twitter: We’ll be live tweeting from @TuftsLive, so follow along from early morning preparation to the procession, the awarding of honorary degrees, and the commencement address. Use the hashtag #Tufts2012 to let us know what you’re up to.
•  Web: Watch the live streamed ceremony at commencement.tufts.edu, where you will also find the @TuftsLive and #Tufts2012 feeds, so you’ll be sure to not miss a thing.
• Instagram: We love photos! If you’re on campus, snap some pictures and tag them #Tufts or #Tufts2012. We’ll be capturing some shots too, so be sure to check them out (username: TuftsUniversity)
• Facebook: We’ve been getting ready for commencement, and will have tons more photos to share just after the ceremony ends.
• Foursquare: Check into Tufts University Commencement 2012 on Foursquare, include a shout out about graduation, and you’ll earn the Hats Off Badge.

What sounds more like Tufts than puns, civic engagement, and the environment? It won’t come as a surprise that Tufts alumni are essential to The Boston Tree Party.

The Party is a diverse coalition of organizations, institutions, and communities from across the Greater Boston Area coming together in support of Civic Fruit. We call for the planting of fruit trees in civic space and promote the fruits of civic engagement. Each community has committed to planting and caring for a pair of heirloom apple trees.

Three Tufts Alumni are leading the way at The Boston Tree Party. Lisa Gross is the Chairman and Founder, Maura Schorr Beaufait is the Chief of Operations, and Beth Nollner is Project Coordinator. Between them they hold degrees from Tufts/MFA, the Friedman School of Nutrition, and the Urban and Environmental Policy graduate program.

Check out this short documentary: “Growing Civic Fruit: A Documentary Film about the Boston Tree Party”

You can follow the Boston Tree Party on Twitter at @BostTreeParty

Eugenia Lee, A11, is a program associate with the Dignitas Project, “a non-profit organization focused on developing passionate, ethical, and results-driven school and community leaders in underserved communities around the world.” She recently wrote this blog post about a boys and girls training in Kenya’s Mathare Valley.

We often talk about children as the leaders of tomorrow but this is a powerful opportunity to start today, where it matters.

Alber Sabanoglu, G86, is a true global citizen. Growing up in Turkey, he then obtained his B.A. and M.S. in the U.S., and now teaches mathematics in Spain. His story “To the Islands” was recently published in translation in the January 2012 edition of Words Without Borders.

It was a clear, peaceful day. The sky was blue, with patches of violet clouds toward the horizon, and the sea was like a darker sheet with small wrinkles on the surface, which showed that the wind came from the south from the islands. Facing the front of the boat, those islands looked like distant, mysterious lands: half-legendary, hidden behind a mist which revealed only their main curves. But the two children knew that the islands could also look different: there were days when the play of the light made the houses of the first—easternmost—island seem almost within a hand’s reach. It was hard to know which of the two views was an illusion, since there were no ferry lines from that part of the mainland to the islands. As for the small boats, it was forbidden for the children, and unthinkable for the grownups, to go beyond an invisible line near the end of the bay with them.

Read the rest of the story, and explore other works of contemporary international literature on the Words Without Borders site.

If you care about the environment and want to do graduate work in the subject area, look no further! Tufts Institute of the Environment (TIE), which emphasizes the importance of sustainability and environmental research and awareness through interdisciplinary initiatives, has two exciting opportunities for post-grads.

The TIE Graduate Fellows program allows Tufts graduate students of any discipline to add an environmental component to his or her research. From biology to works of literature, Tufts students have found unique ways to delve into the natural world. Take a look:

On a different note, TIE Tufts Environmental Literacy Institute (TELI) brings faculty, staff and graduates together for a week-long workshop every year to increase environmental literacy.  Here’s more about this year’s program and what it accomplished:

Be sure to like TIE on Facebook and to check out some cool photos!

Assistant Professor Ayanna Thomas, Ph.D., recently published her paper entitled, “Reducing the Burden of Stereotype Threat Eliminates Age Differences in Memory Distortion” in Psychological Science. Thomas, using her work from The Cognitive Aging and Memory Lab at Tufts, provides evidence that if the elderly are primed to think of themselves as old, they are more likely to create false memories than those who are not. Thomas explains,

Older adults are more likely to falsely recall these unrepresented words than younger adults. We investigated whether we could reduce this age-difference in false memory susceptibility by reducing the influence of negative stereotypes of aging

Stacy Dubois, a former Tufts  graduate student, co-authored the paper as well.

Those who pursue a Ph.D. in Drama at Tufts thankfully do not keep their musings contained to the stage or to publications.

Danielle Rosvally, a current Ph.D. student, frequently discusses her intense interest in Shakespeare on her blog Daniprose. In her latest post, she discusses the upcoming movie Anonymous, which takes into account the rumor that Shakespeare did not actually write any of his plays. Rosvally responds…

Here’s my brief opinion of the authorship debate: why are we wasting our time?  No matter how we slice it, Shakespeare (either the man from Stratford or the great playwright – whether these two are the same person or not) is dead.  Shakespeare the man from Stratford existed.  Shakespeare the playwright wrote amazing, transcendent works of literature which continue to touch upon the human soul hundreds of years after his death.  Everything else is a fairy tale.

Meron Langsner, who currently holds a Ph.D. in Drama from Tufts and has  taught at the university in the past, has started a new blog entitled Taking Note and Taking Notes. He comments on a vast array of topics, from theatrical pieces and his involvement to performance and fight directing. For example, on the topic of cooperative writing, Langsner notes…

Only twice before had I co-authored anything, and both times it was with someone who was already a close friend coming into the process.  The experience of co-writing in a supportive environment with the people that I shared the retreat with where everyone was filling in everyone else’s blanks is incredibly affirming.

Be sure to check out Rosvally and Langsner on Twitter too!

Time to dust off your rainbow flags, National Coming Out Day is right around the corner! On the hill, the LGBT Center has planned a number of events leading up to National Coming Out Day like the week of flags, painting the cannon “in a glorious rainbow (THERE WILL BE HELLA GLITTER),” and a feature in the Tufts Daily where “Out and Proud” community members “out themselves.”

Tufts has a rich tradition of supporting the LGBT community — both professors and students rally in support of LGBT students. This love and support is perfectly portrayed in the following “It Gets Better” video by the Fletcher GLBT club and their allies:

With the option of Tufts admissions videos for prospective students and the enhancement in one’s ability to watch whatever they want, whenever they want, it shouldn’t be surprising that we have some entertainment gurus on campus.

Ben Phelps, A’11, and a current Masters student for Educational Studies, writes about and critiques dozens of television shows on his blog BP on TV. From predictions about the 63rd Emmy Award Show to his five most anticipated fall season shows, Phelps journeys through an eclectic television landscape.

Acting as the other side of the same coin, so to speak,  Erik Leupp, A’12 shows off his cinematic knowledge on FilmBuffet, a blog dedicated to movie reviews. In predicting this to be the most epic movie season ever, Leupp writes,

All of this pales in comparison though to this upcoming fall and winter movie season. This one might be one for the record books. Never before have I seen a film season packing this much of a Hollywood punch. Many of the biggest directors are releasing films and many of the most prominent and talented actors of our time have films coming out. There is the very real potential that this year’s Oscar telecast will be the most star-studded in recent memory. Everyone from Meryl Streep to Brad Pitt to Tilda Swinton to Ryan Gosling to Kate Winslet to Leonardo DiCaprio to Sandra Bullock to Viggo Mortenson have a chance of being nominated

Be sure to follow Phelps on Twitter and like FilmBuffet on Facebook.