US Senate Page Program

Richardson giving a speech at the closing ceremony in the Mansfield room in the capitol.

While students at PA began their first semester of the school year with the usual first day of school jitters, junior Piper Richardson was traveling across the state to Washington DC, preparing to serve for five months in the U.S. Capitol as a Senate Page. 

The United States Page Program, founded in the Senate in 1829, provides 30 high school students at a time with the opportunity to work in Congress while living and going to school in Washington DC, only returning home for holidays.

Richardson describes that she first became interested in working in the government in middle school when a friend’s older brother spent two months working as a Page in the Virginia General Assembly. “He talked about [the program] all the time, and I thought, ‘Wow this seems so cool,’” Richardson explains. “I had been really interested in politics and legislation for a while, so I figured it would be cool to see what it was like firsthand.” 

For two months out of her freshman year, Richardson was able to see legislation being created right before her eyes as a Page for the Virginia Senate. Her experience in the program differed largely from her experience later on in the U.S. Senate, as she only worked around five hours a day, and returned to Virginia Beach on the weekends. 

From the Virginia Page Program, Richardson learned of the U.S. Page Program and applied to be a Page under Virginia Senator Mark Warner, although she explains she did not believe at first that she would be accepted. “The program is known to be very exclusive,” says Richardson. “There’s usually only one kid chosen per state, so unless you’re like a senator’s granddaughter or you know someone, you don’t get in.” 

So once she got in, Richardson explained she had very little doubts when choosing to go. “The program [is] not only something I’m very passionate about, it’s also something which looks, to be frank, very good on college applications,” she says. “There was no way that I could pass up on this opportunity.” 

Once she arrived in DC, Richardson described her introduction to the program as “terrifying,” the first week spent introducing the Pages to the work that would be their life for the next few months. The Pages stay in a residence hall near the capitol, with two floors separated by gender, usually with three or four other people in a room. Additionally, Pages are not allowed to have their phones while in the program. 

The program, Richardson explains, is made up of three areas: work, school and home life. The Pages would begin their day around 5 a.m. getting ready to leave their dorms around 5:30 to eat breakfast and prepare for school, which began at six. School for the Pages was made up of around 30 minute classes and lasted until 8:45, the classes focusing on the four core subjects of English, math, science and history. Richardson describes balancing school and work throughout her time in the program as “tough,” especially because of the high level of classes she was taking. “All of my classes were AP level…and [the teachers] would fit a lot in, so there was never any time for breaks or anything like that.” 

After school, Richardson would go straight to work as a Page, either as the “early shift” which would last from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., or the “late shift” which meant she would stay at the capitol until the Senate adjourned. One time, on the “late shift,” Richardson recalls, she spent over 18 hours in the Senate, as they did not adjourn until around 4 a.m.. 

Richardson explains her job as a Page usually consisted of activities like passing out amendments and bills and setting senators up to give speeches. Also, while preparing the presiding officer’s desk, she was able to meet Vice President Kamala Harris when she came to preside over the Senate. 

Along with school and work, home life was another area Pages in the program had to balance. This ensured Pages kept up with the standards required of them while being in the program, and any deviations resulted in demerits. “You got demerits if your room wasn’t clean enough…and you had to clean up your area, but you couldn’t clean up your roommates’ areas.” 

Although the Pages had a lot thrown at them in the beginning, Richardson explains that she easily began to love the program: “Past the first month, I started to really enjoy it, but the first month was rough.” 

According to Richardson, her experience as a Page came at a very interesting time in the Senate. She credits many of her late nights working in the Senate to the process of confirming military nominations, which took about nine months overall. “One senator was blocking a bunch of nominations from the military…because he didn’t like a rule the Pentagon had for these officers,” she explains. 

Additionally, some significant events that occurred during Richardson’s time at the Senate were the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the first impeachment of the Speaker of the House and the failure to pass government funding legislation. “We almost had three government shutdowns. We had a Saturday session…I came back in at 8 a.m. and [it wasn’t] until 10 p.m. that night they finally passed a bill they sort of agreed on.” 

“I also saw the death of Senator Diane Feinstein,” recalls Richardson. “One day I came into work in late September and her desk had a black blanket over it with a crystal vase of white roses, the sign they do for when a senator dies in office.” She describes how all the Pages were very saddened by her death and that day in the Senate was spent remembering her and her accomplishments in office. 

On weekends, Pages are given free time where many spend time exploring the city. “I went to a musical, art shows, farmer’s markets, museums and I did a lot of shopping,” said Richardson. Additionally, Richardson explains she toured many universities in the area like Georgetown, George Washington and American. 

Richardson describes how close all of the Pages in the program become because of how much time they spend together: “Now I have friends from Colorado, Utah, one in Alaska…it’s kind of cruel the way they make you become so close with these kids, almost like you’re siblings for six months, and then one day they’re like ‘oh, you have to go home now.’” 

Although the Pages split up after their time in the program and go back to their home states, Richardson explains that meetups usually happen every once in a while, with reunions around the country. “It’s so special the communities you find with these kids that otherwise, I would never be friends with,” she says. 

Other than meeting new friends, Richardson and the other Pages were able to meet many celebrities, like Mark Ruffalo and Dwayne Johnson. “I met Bill Nye right outside of the senate floor and on the street,” she recalls. “He fist-bumped me; that was pretty cool.” Richardson also saw President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who waved to the Pages when he visited the Senate. 

One of Richardson’s biggest takeaways from her time as a Page was how the media seems to distort what actually occurs on a day-to-day basis in the Senate. “My classmates and I all agreed that [coming from] reading the headlines of like ‘one senator saying this to another senator’ and it’s all angry and rude, you come in expecting to see arguments of vitriol between senators from across the aisle…and you expect Democrats and Republicans to never interact, but that’s just not how it works.” 

By spending so much time seeing how the country’s legislative branch actually works, Richardson believes that Congress is far from the extremely polarized body it is usually portrayed as. “It’s so strange because you come in there thinking, ‘our country’s so divided,  Congress doesn’t get anything done,’ but the fact of the matter is, almost everything shown in the news is something they’ve passed or rejected. It doesn’t show the work and the time and weekends they put in trying to get these things done for the American people.”