“Journalism is a connection to humanity,” keynote speaker Gary Green told a roomful of high school journalists and teachers during the 2024 GSPA Spring Workshop and Awards. “What connects us as people are the stories and moments that we share together,” he said.

SPLC executive Director Gary green gives the keynote address during the spring workshop and awards at the uga georgia center march 25 2024.

Green, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, displayed images from his decades-long career as a photojournalist while discussing the stories behind each and the reasons they’ve stayed in his mind over time.

“Journalism has taken me places I would never have gone without (it). I’ve met people I would have never met without journalism,” he said. “It’s a license to talk to anybody, to go anywhere, and it’s absolutely the most fun you can have and call it work."

Green urged the students to continue to pursue important stories despite what can appear to be a “heavy cloud that hangs over the world right now.”

“We need you to cover these elections, we need you to question the people in power, we need to you be courageous, we need you to be bold, we need you to be fearless, but we need you to be curious,” he said. “We want you to go out and ask questions and just experience life in a way that educates you, inspires you, creates empathy for your fellow man and helps us understand the world just a little better.

“Have fun with journalism. It is just the best way to experience the world,” Green concluded.

The Student Press Law Center is a free legal service for scholastic journalists and teachers. Go to splc.org to set up a consultation.

The event was held March 25 at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education. Recipients of awards administered throughout the year were recognized, including the Summer Yearbook and Literary Magazine contest winners, Georgia Champion and Junior Champion Journalists, First Amendment Essay finalists, Achievement Award winners and Spring Broadcast, Newspaper, Newsmagazine and News Website contest winners.