Editor’s note: The following blog entry by Marco Santana is being republished here with his permission.

By Marco Santana

To meet John Seigenthaler is to be inspired. The 82-year-old founder of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn., has lived a life that you usually only read about. Starting in 1961, he served as an administrative assistant to then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

When the Freedom Rides of 1961 reached Montgomery, Ala., Seigenthaler was sent as an escort and, while trying to protect two young women, he was hit with a lead pipe and knocked unconscious for about 25 minute. Afterward, Kennedy sent Seigenthaler a lead pipe as a memento of the trip. That pipe now is on display in the hallway of the First Amendment Center.

In January of 2009, I had the privilege of meeting Seigenthaler during a week-long trip to the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute in Nashville. It was a Chips Quinn Scholars trip that deserves its own blog entry some day. But, long story short, I met a lot of talented young journalists, and the trip changed me quite a bit.

One of the main messages I took from that trip, however, was to give back wherever you could. This past weekend, I had a chance to do just that.

For years, I have attended the Illinois College Press Association’s annual convention in Chicago as a student. For the first time this year, I attended as an instructor. Even typing that makes me cringe. How the heck could I teach anybody anything? I could barely make it to class when I was in school. Nonetheless, I led a session on covering meetings and, to my surprise, we had a nearly full house.

It took a couple of minutes to get comfortable in front of the student-journalists, who attend colleges throughout Illinois. But once I was comfortable, I believe the session went smoothly. The students asked questions and even laughed at some of my jokes. That’s always a good sign.

My hope is that this will turn into a regular thing. It’s the least I can do to thank those endless advisers, professional reporters, professors (who can confirm my attendance record) and student editors who selflessly helped me at school.

In the end, I hope to make a difference in some people’s lives, whether they are up-and-coming journalists or beneficiaries of volunteer opportunities in the area.

It is nowhere near the work that Seigenthaler, who went on to become the founding editorial director of the USA Today, has done in his life. I doubt if I will ever be able to make the difference that he has made. But at the very least, I hope to take the message I learned in Nashville and put it to work on behalf of others.

Marco Santana is a local government reporter for the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, Ill., working in the Dupage County bureau. Previously he was an education reporter for The Register-Mail in Galesburg, Ill. He was a Spring 2009 Chips Quinn Scholar for The Associated Press in Des Moines, Iowa. A journalism graduate of Eastern Illinois University, Santana began as a staff reporter and copy editor, then was sports editor, associate sports editor, editor in chief, campus editor, and arts and entertainment editor for The Daily Eastern News, EIU’s newspaper. He was president of the school’s chapter of the American Copy Editors Society. He has been an intern for the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill., and twice at the Daily Herald in the Chicago area.