FSPA (Florida Scholastic Press Association) is a non-profit organization that serves as a way for highschoolers to be able to learn
about media (broadcasting, news writing, photojournalism), art (illustration, photography, videography), and lets students from different schools make connections through what their passions are.
FSPA also allows students to participate in digital contests. These contests have students submit pictures, drawings, yearbook and newspaper spreads, videos, and more to win prizes and get feedback from the judges to help them improve. The judges will take these submissions and categorize them by quality. All-Florida being the highest rating and best-of-the-best being the overall winner.
Gulf Breeze saw multiple winners for the fall digital contests. Clara Campus got an excellent for the deadline illustration challenge, Matthew Gustafson got an excellent for the student life photo contest, and Elan Alqudah won All-Florida for the Deadline Photo contest.
District-1 invited Dan Shugart to be the keynote speaker for the convention. He talked about and answered questions about his experience being a news reporter for WEAR TV and his time covering sports all over the Pensacola area. Sharing important tips and info on how to cover different kinds of news.
After Dan Shugart finished speaking, Last year’s district rep, Colby Coolbaugh introduced the district-1 representative candidates. “Being the District rep for FSPA last year broadened my creativity, social skills, and my work ethic. It allowed me to better the Spring Convention for all the young journalists that attended.” Both gave a small speech about why they should represent district 1 for the state convention in April of 2026. “I’m passionate about journalism and wanted to learn leadership skills that will help me in the future.”
They then had the students break out to their choice of 3 different classes. Elijah Nall was in the first class talking about photography, what makes a photo good, and how to improve covering different events. Elijah is a 2025 graduate from Pace high school, before graduation Elijah was the Editor-in-Chief of his school’s yearbook, the Liberator. He is now the athletic photographer at UWF.
The second was taught by Navarre high school’s lead photographer, Brian Lester, sharing his knowledge on covering sports that he acquired from years of covering the Blue Wahoos, UWF argonauts and the Pensacola Ice Flyers and working for media outlets including the LA Times, MiLB.com, USCHO, and USA hockey Magazine.
The final class was Design/Marketing taught by Sasha Timen, a local Jostens representative with years of experience as a former adjunct professor of Graphic Design, former high school yearbook adviser, a freelance graphic designer of her company, a look:design, and has won multiple awards as a yearbook rep. “The three breakout sessions helped students hone their journalism skills. This meeting was a great precursor to our state meeting.”
In April of 2026, Gulf Breeze students will go to Orlando for the state FSPA convention, a 3-day long event at the renaissance hotel in Orlando. There, FSPA will release the Best-of-the-best winners from the fall digital contests and the spring digital contests.