BIO
Hi! I’m Angela, a digital and print journalist passionate about highlighting systemic inequities through narrative storytelling that humanizes the numbers. As I prepare to graduate from Boston University with degrees in journalism and international relations, I’m heading into my third semester writing for NBC News.
During my previous reporting stints at The Wall Street Journal and The Boston Globe, my bylines landed on A1 and topped page-traffic charts at both outlets. My freelance work has also appeared in publications such as The Guardian and Poynter. Prior to any of that, I served as editor in chief of my college newspaper, The Daily Free Press — the newsroom that shaped me into the person and journalist I am today.
Aside from writing, I’ve grown increasingly fascinated with audio journalism as well. My first-ever internship was with GBH, a Boston NPR station, where I learned so much about radio news that I was asked to temporarily take over as a full-time producer. Throughout much of my college career, I worked as the freelance fact checker for “Proof,” a Webby Award-winning podcast by America’s Test Kitchen, and ran my own amateur podcast (“Is It OK If I Record?“) as a passion project.
If you’re a fellow journo, let’s be friends! Find me on Twitter @Angela_Y_Yang.
FOREVER A FREEPER
Throughout my fall 2020 semester as editor-in-chief of BU’s award-winning independent newspaper The Daily Free Press, my staff published more than 1,000 stories. We broke news on and investigated BU’s campus reopening throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In the midst of this, I also led the FreeP’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election, localizing national stories to bring value to our readers.
When the pandemic first hit, I remained in Boston while BU’s campus emptied out to cover the reverberations. I told the stories of students stranded in near-empty dorms, as well as of local businesses that suffered the sudden loss of college customers.
Just before then, when Harvard University became one of the first schools to send students home, I traveled to its campus to report on the impact of this decision on low-income students. The resulting short documentary is published in the Harvard Political Review.
In the summer of 2020, I took my pen and camera through the neighborhoods of Boston to document back-to-back nights of conflict and conciliation between protestors and police. I was working as a grocery clerk during the day, heading out in the evenings and writing into the early morning.
Prior to my time as EIC, I was the FreeP’s city editor. I reported breaking metro news as Massachusetts navigated a pandemic-induced shutdown, as well as analyzed how COVID-19 was affecting various sectors of life — such as why liquor stores remained open while other businesses shuttered, and how senior home care services continued to operate.
During the 2020 Democratic primary race, I covered three election stories on Super Tuesday in Massachusetts, one of which zoned in on the less-covered Green Party. I also coordinated the paper’s coverage of the New Hampshire primary, during which I reported on the ground at Joe Biden‘s watch party before editing all other election stories that night.
In addition to regularly covering local policy, housing, business and transportation, I especially enjoy reporting simply on my curiosities. This led me to discover that Massachusetts was experiencing a shortage of caretakers for seniors, what it was like to be unhoused in Boston during winter and where old train cars go after they retire.
My first semester of college, I investigated why small businesses were struggling to enter the Massachusetts marijuana market and found that red tape in licensing was pushing all but the wealthiest out of the industry. When local news stations reported immediately on a statistic that named a Boston neighborhood as having the highest rent in the country, I called local experts and discovered the number was skewed.
I ended my time at The Daily Free Press with more than 80 bylines. Although time flew by much too fast at the student newsroom I love so much, I can’t wait to take the skills, grit and passion I nurtured there into the world beyond.
Articles I’m Featured In
BU TODAY | Pell Grant 50th Anniversary
June 16, 2022
The financial freedom I enjoy as a result of my Pell Grant and scholarship has transformed the trajectory of my career by allowing me to fulfill my full potential. But my story is just as much one of personal success as one of systemic failure.
NBCU ACADEMY | Listing how AAPI communities and allies fight hate crimes
May 19, 2022
NBC News contributor Angela Yang spoke with NBCU Academy about NBC Asian America’s special project on 100 ways AAPI communities were responding to hate crimes and bias attacks over the course of the pandemic.
BU TODAY | Reflections on Photographing Trauma
Nov. 9, 2020
The Daily Free Press, BU’s student-run newspaper, doesn’t typically publish during the summer. But when Black Lives Matter protesters took to Boston’s streets in June, editor in chief Angela Yang (COM’23) decided to make an exception.