Eric Neff

Student

“I had a lot of opportunity, met a lot of people. All the things I’m doing now are the result of being at SMC.”

He’s been a Hong Kong disc jockey, studied Chinese and martial arts for a year in Beijing, helps people learn computers in the Mac lab and has been president of more SMC clubs than there is space to mention. He plans on a transfer to UCLA: but don’t hold him to it. “I may be studying communications in Atlanta,” says Eric Neff. “Because in five years, I plan on running a record label.” And if his accomplishments at SMC are any indications, he will do just that.

“I was director of activities for the Associated Students last year, and I got involved with a lot of acts that way. I actually got an internship with Rhino Records, where I’m continuing to work. And hopefully, I’ll be producing for them some day,” says Eric. He is now studying communications and psychology, skills that he finds invaluable as president of the Afrikan Student Union. “I wasn’t looking to be a club president this semester, but the ASU needed to get started up again, so there I was,” he says. “We get involved in social issues, education, politics, and helping the community directly as well. What we try to do is key on pan-Africanism which includes African Americans. Because of the diaspora, there are black people all over the world. And that term—black—is an American thing, really,” he explains. “We use the word ‘Afrikan’, spelled with a ‘K’, to say it really doesn’t matter where you’re from. I myself was born in Haiti. And we don’t want to exclude anyone.”

Eric reports that, even though a career in the business of music beckons, his travels through the world are always going to be important to him. “Traveling will always be one of the major things I want to do with my life,” he says. “Meeting different kinds of people, learning all I can about different cultures. Travel really opens your eyes to the world.”

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