As seasoned reporters were herded behind the gate from which they would cover U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s speech Thursday in Dawsonville, 10-year-old Andrew Liang joined the ranks.

Camera, voice recorder and notebook in hand, Liang was as stoic as any. Biden’s speech was the Alpharetta resident’s second assignment as a reporter for the Scholastic News kids press corps. A previous assignment had Liang tackling the effects of the economic downturn on fundraising for the Salvation Army.

"It’s told me a lot about current events happening around the world, especially in Georgia," Liang said. "... I also enjoy reporting so I don’t really care whether I’m the oldest or the youngest. I just want to be."

A chance to possibly interview the vice president was markedly different from Liang’s first assignment, though.

"I always wanted to do an important political assignment," Liang said.

While he waited for Biden to take the stage at Impulse Manufacturing in Dawsonville, Liang said he hoped to ask the vice president how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would affect children positively.

But maybe Liang’s first lesson in journalism was that public officials like Biden do not always make time for media questions. For the vice president’s visit, Liang and other members of the media were relegated to an area about 25 yards from the podium where both Biden and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue spoke Thursday.

Neither Perdue nor the vice president took questions after they announced that $2 billion in stimulus loans and grants will be awarded across the country in the next 75 days to bring broadband technology to communities with little access to it.

More than $33 million of those funds would directly affect Georgians, supporting plans to build a network of fiber optic cables that would bring high-speed Internet access to at least eight North Georgia counties.

Liang’s dad, Ken Liang, accompanied the Medlock Bridge Elementary School student as the unofficial photographer. It was the first time either had been in the same room with a national dignitary.

Ken Liang said he helped Andrew prepare for Thursday’s event, and both researched the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as it relates to kids, specifically its affect on education and unemployment.

"We will hope it will help reduce the unemployment rate in Georgia," Ken Liang said. "He has some friends whose dad or mom lost jobs, and one time his uncle lost his job, you know, so these are things they can relate to in real life."

But when it came to interviewing local officials, Andrew Liang did just fine on his own, tilting his head and holding his recorder the same as reporters who were 3 feet taller.

"I’m proud of him," Ken Liang said.