Huang Xiang (L), a 13-year-old journalist, raises a question to an Australian reporter before a FISU press conference at MPC building in Shenzhen. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The second I walked into the FISU press conference room this morning, I was drawn to a big crowd in the mid row. At first, I thought it would probably be somebody caught by wild reporters; but after a closer look I realized it was actually the interviewer who had attracted the crowd's attention.

A young student, who seemed to be in his teens, was surrounded by photographers who were amazed by his questions in fluent English to a foreign journalist.

"Thirteen, to be precise," said Huang Xiang, a freshman from the Shenzhen Nanshan Foreign Language School. "I am here for the Universiade coverage with my teammates."

By team, he meant the Shenzhen Students News Agency, an organization initiated by the city's education bureau as well as the Shenzhen Press Group with more than 2,000 students from primary and secondary schools.

"The program [was] launched in May 2008,,as a platform to provide local students who show interest in journalism with more opportunity of reporting practice," explained Li Qingsong, editor-in-chief of the Education Press Agency of Shenzhen who also captained the student coverage team.

Roughly 200 students, mostly in secondary schools, have been selected for the coverage of Universiade, she said, especially those with excellent English skills. They are divided into 20 teams and will report in 41 competition venues at Universiade.

"They are like a name card for Shenzhen," she said, "and our slogan is 'Shenzhen Universiade, participated in, and reported by, students.'"