Twenty-five high school students from 15 states logged into the Student Press Law Center’s New Voices Student Leaders Institute this summer expecting to learn about press freedom, but they say they took away so much more.
After two weeks of training and collaborating with their peers, they’re now equipped with the leadership skills, advocacy strategies and confidence to lead campaigns for press freedom in their states and communities.
“This task is big — dare I say massive — but this institute, my cohort and SPLC make me feel assured that I can rise up to the challenge,” said Emma Alves, a junior at John Burroughs High School in Burbank, California.
The free virtual institute, now in its seventh year, is SPLC’s training program for New Voices, the student-led, nonpartisan movement working to end censorship of student media by passing state laws that protect students’ right to report freely. Eighteen states currently have laws, many enacted in the past decade. Students are often at the center of these movements, backed by their educators and the Student Press Law Center.
More from the institute
Read more reflections from the institute’s student participants, plus an institute alumna who returned to co-facilitate this year:
SPLC Advocacy Associate Grayson Marlow, who facilitated the institute, said he was impressed by this year’s group of New Voices student leaders.
“Year after year, I am inspired by the work and commitment of participants in our New Voices Student Leaders Institute, and our 2026 cohort is no different,” he said. “They are meeting this challenging time for student media with brave storytelling and bold advocacy. Instead of backing down under the increasing pressure, they are standing up for their rights and their ability to report truthfully. As we look to the 2027 legislative session, these students are leading the way for student press freedom.”
During this year’s leadership program, students workshopped public narratives, built an advocacy strategy for their own state, and heard from press freedom experts.
Guest speakers included Steve Listopad, a journalism instructor and pioneer in the New Voices movement; Cathy Kuhlmeier, lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier; and Laura Lee Prather, an attorney and longtime free speech advocate.
Bowen Darling, a junior at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, said each speaker and exercise gave her confidence for the future.
“The NVSLI offered so much more than a to-do list of advocacy,” she said. “This institute brought light to a more human aspect of this goal that can be difficult to visualize when thinking about student press on a broader scale.”
Several institute alumni also returned to motivate the new class.
Izabelle Jones, Betty Jane Plitt and Zelda Lerner attended the 2025 institute and have spent the past year building a New Voices movement in Georgia, which Sriram Chiripurapu said was inspiring to learn about.
“It was truly so heartwarming to see student journalists just like me taking the same action and making a real difference,” said Chiripurapu, who is a junior at Rock Ridge High School in Ashburn, Virginia.
Mira Thakkar, a senior at Lambert High School in Suwanee, Georgia, has already connected with the Georgia alumni as they look to build on their progress. That connection with other students passionate about press freedom was one of her most valuable takeaways from the institute, she said.
“I learned how important community can be when fighting for a cause, which is what is motivating me to find other student journalists facing censorship and gather their testimonies,” Thakkar said.
That pattern — students building the movement and then sharing their lessons with those who come after them — is a key part of the institute and New Voices’ legislative success.
This year’s institute was co-facilitated by Myesha Phukan, an SPLC advocacy intern who attended the 2023 institute while dealing with her own high school censorship issue.
“I see NVSLI now as more than just a supportive space but an advocacy pipeline,” said Phukan, now a sophomore at UC Berkeley. “It serves as a space where students are encouraged to not only recognize the struggles they face in their own newsrooms but also are given the resources they need to push for broader change in their districts and states.”
Darling said hearing from students such as Phukan who had been censored is what committed her to expanding Arkansas’ New Voices law, which protects student journalists but not their advisers.
“Hearing firsthand experiences of censorship from other students — people who were also worried about their summer homework and wanted to see the new Spider-Man movie — gave me the inspiration to fully commit to my goal,” she said.
Similarly, Chiripurapu is already helping grow the coalition in Virginia to pass its first protections for high school journalists.
“By identifying legislators who often support student literacy expansion, a skill I learned through the institute, we were able, as a coalition, to expand our network of connected legislators,” he said.
The Student Press Law Center will continue to support the students’ advocacy efforts throughout the year, including by convening the 2026 class for quarterly check-ins and additional training. The first follow-up session is Sept. 19.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my summer than supporting student journalists, and I can’t wait to see where the lessons from this institute take me,” Darling said.
New Voices is a student-led, nonpartisan movement working to end censorship of student media by passing state laws that protect students’ right to report freely. The Student Press Law Center powers this movement by convening coalitions, educating lawmakers, sharing model policies and equipping students with the training and confidence they need to stand up for press freedom. Learn more about how you can take action to restore and protect student press freedom in your state.