Standing in Fromm Hall at the University of San Francisco, with a reporter’s notebook in his hands and a press pass around his neck, Eric Fang (12) intently listened to the person standing in front of him, none other than 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard in a one-on-one interview. With other reporters from professional newspapers standing in the same room, Eric, the only high school reporter in the room, had pushed his way forward to ask the Congresswoman his own questions.

“I had the intention to actually interview her, but I didn’t have the expectation of actually doing it,” Eric said. “I didn’t think I had a chance to interview a national politician on that level. So it blew my mind that people would be this welcoming to a high school journalist and make that time for people like me. It was a really good experience covering her Town Hall, and by doing that, it pushed me to cover more of the general election.”

Gabbard would be the first of many presidential candidates that Eric would end up interviewing. But Eric wasn’t always into journalism or politics. Before that, he had been committed to sports, especially wrestling, which he started in seventh grade. Unfortunately, the program ended after Eric’s junior year.

“I was super committed to wrestling, and it was a big part of my life,” Eric said. “It kind of sucks that it isn’t there anymore. It feels like a chunk of my senior year is missing, but I still consider that’s what makes me much of who I am today.”

But in the four years he spent wrestling, Eric found similarities in how he approached athletics and how he approaches journalism to this day.

“Wrestling taught me to be a lot more committed to things that I have to do because, like journalism, there’s a deadline for cutting weight and meeting your goals,” he said. “I knew that if I wanted to improve myself I had to work towards that.”

Furthermore, wrestling taught him how to shape himself as an individual.

“I wanted to be able to have this self-accountability and to be able to be personally responsible for the outcome of whatever I do,” Eric said. “And that kind of came with wrestling. It was a really intense sport.”

In many ways, Eric learned to pursue interviews as a reporter the same way he pursued improving in wrestling, to hold himself to a high standard of effort. Ellen Austin, the Director of Journalism at Harker and adviser to the Winged Post, remembers when she first introduced Eric to finding interviews on his own.

“In the fall of his junior year, I think there was so much going on,” Austin said. “And that was when we really started emphasizing individual sourcing. Who are you talking to? And why is it that person? Eric really took that on, he took that legitimately. He was trying to run with that idea of this is what it means to do coverage. This is what it means to do stories. This is what it means to find a source.”

With each interview, Eric learned more about being a good reporter and gained insight into not only the political scene but also the local journalism scene.

“Covering politics and political events got a lot easier for me as time went on,” he said. “I think one of the most important things I did is networking with other people covering these events, like professional photographers and reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle and the Mercury News.”

Now, Eric approaches each interview with a high level of professionalism that he strives to uphold for himself. 

“Eric puts in the detective work,” Austin said. “He does the reading about his sources. So when he’s actually interviewing them, he’s able to say, ‘You said in an interview last year’ or ‘I read your policy paper about.’ I think he treats his interview preparation like some people treat preparation for a quiz or an in-class essay. He wants to know before he sits down, where he’s going to go.”

Additionally, wrestling taught him something more than just how to rely on himself. Eric learned that, even with the individual matches, the team aspect helped him with his motivation.

“Even though wrestling is an individual sport, in my mind it’s still a team sport because you have people in the wrestling room that you really get to know well and get to bond with,” he said. “Even though you can’t count on them to wrestle side by side with you on the wrestling mat, they’re always with you in the back of your mind and always on the sidelines, cheering for you.”

Eric found that same encouragement when he joined the newspaper staff his freshman year.

“The people that are there to mentor you were all super helpful and kind and patient. They all really want to see you improve yourself and be the best that you can be,” Eric said. “And that really left a strong impression in my mind that journalism is really a family that really cares for people. That was the primary reason I stayed in journalism.”

While his interviewing skills continually improved with his own efforts and the support of his fellow journalists, one thing remained constant: Eric’s dedication to serving the community. That drive became apparent when he covered his first political event in the summer after his freshman year.

“I was in Seattle on vacation with my family, and we came across a political protest in support of DACA and against Trump’s immigration policy,” he said. “And I guess when I saw that I immediately jumped into action. I took photos, and I did interviews. I really felt like I was involved in something that really matters to people in the country and in our school. I felt like I had a purpose as a journalist, covering these political events.”

As a reporter, Eric served to educate his community about what was going on in the country, and for him, that meant reporting even on vacation.

“I don’t think Eric ever switches back and forth from being a high schooler and a journalist,” Gloria Zhang (12), Winged Post Co-Editor-in-Chief alongside Eric, said. “Both of those are his identities and they co-exist. He would be going to the mall with his sister or just walking on the streets during his vacation, and he sees a protest or a march. Right away he’s there with his phone and his notebook, interviewing everyone. He truly believes in the importance of story-telling and that’s what makes him a great journalist.”

As his interest in covering political events escalated through the years, Eric looked for other ways he could serve his community. And he found one through an internship with the San Jose City Hall in the summer after his junior year.

“I did a lot of work with local constituents there,” he said. “I talked to them at community gatherings. I spoke with them over the phone and through email. And I interned for one of the poorest districts in San Jose, but it’s also definitely one of the most diverse areas.”

That active involvement in politics displayed that he could effectively affect change even at such a young age.

“Eric’s always been really fascinated by politics, and it’s really cool to see someone so young being so involved,” Chandan Aggarwal (12), who worked with Eric in the City Hall internship, said. “He has a well-informed opinion on just about any topic, and I look forward to voting for him in the future.”

For Eric, the internship gave him a first-hand experience of local politics, and it shined a light on the problems within his own community.

“[Interning] was a really eye-opening experience for me because before when I thought of San Jose, I thought of skyscrapers and tech firms and big companies, but working with my councilman, I realized that it’s a lot more than what it pretends to be. I realized that people are struggling even in my own community, and that was one of my blind spots. I hope that with community service and political activism, I can change that,” Eric said.

To educate his community more about the issues he noticed in his internship, Eric goes out of his way to tell the stories of the people in the Bay Area. In February, he covered a story of homeless mothers trying to buy a house in Oakland, an example of the housing crisis in the area. He gives a voice to people who want their stories to be heard and their struggles to be recognized.

“The way that I kind of became interested in politics was simply just reading about it in the news and becoming more aware,” he said. “I feel like that was a positive service that journalism did to me, and I want to share that experience with other people in my community and raise awareness for these issues, not through a biased lens or anything but instead through an objective lens, in order to just inform people what’s going on and to help people become more politically active and aware in general.”

Recently named as the California Journalist of the Year, Eric continues to pursue his passions for journalism and politics for the purpose of helping out his community, whatever and wherever that community is.