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p.m. each night the pages have mandatory study hall, monitored by
licensed educators.
The pages work Monday through Friday each week and on the
weekends they often travel home to see their family and friends and
meet with teachers, Carsillo said.
The pages receive weekly paychecks for their work in addition
to a per diem for meals and incidentals, Finch said. In 1850 the first
pages received $2 a day for their services. Today the pages receive
around $140 a week.
“Providing monetary compensation lets the Pages know the
level of expectation and quality of work that they will be responsible
for completing and maintaining throughout the Regular Session,”
Carsillo said. “They are treated as colleagues and part of the session
staff team that makes sure we have a successful session.”
Carsillo said that investing in students from such a young age
helps build future leaders and participants in multiple environments.
“Whether the Pages are on a personal course to become a
legislator, judge, teacher, farmer, law enforcement officer, medical
professional, military member, entrepreneur, the Page experience
and its lessons stays with them, hopefully, for the rest of their
lives,” Carsillo said.
SenatorWalter Stosch has been serving in the General Assembly
since 1983 and he has had the opportunity to see his pages grow and
continue to flex the leadership skills that they learned in the page
program.
“I have seen many young people participate in the Senate
Page Program and have been so pleased to learn of their ongoing
success,” Stosch said. “Some have become lawyers, others
prominent business leaders, yet others followed other academic,
personal and professional pursuits. As I tell them, the Senate
Page Program will build character and prepare them for most any
challenges in life.”
By Brennan Long
Page
Program
Reflections
he page program in the Virginia
Legislature is over 160 years old and
despite the U.S. Congressional page
program being cut in addition to state page
programs around the country Virginia’s
program does not seem to be going
anywhere anytime soon. The program is
not just an archaic custom held on to for
historical significance, but a chance to teach
the future electorate about the functions of
state government and perhaps groom the leaders of tomorrow.
“The page program is a tremendous opportunity and learning
experience for our young people,” said Speaker William J. Howell.
“The program allows them to see first-hand how the legislature
operates on a daily basis, teaches them responsibility and character,
and often inspires a love for public service and governance.”
Tami Carsillo, the Information & Communications Services
Specialist in the House of Delegates Clerks Office and a House
Page Program supervisor said that the face-to-face interactions with
legislators, staff, constituents, press, and officials offer the pages the
experience to see how the General Assembly operates first hand.
“The complexity of legislatures offers the pages real-world
situations, and how we choose to navigate these situations by gaining
practical experience,” Carsillo said. “We have taken the theoretical
knowledge of the classroom and through practical experiences,
hopefully make such a positive impression that they increase their
involvement in local, national, and international issues.”
Each session 80 young men and women come to Capitol Square
to work as pages in the Senate or the House of Delegates. The pages
must be 13 or 14 years old and maintain an A or B average at school
to participate in the program.
“I have been immensely impressed by the quality of pages we had
have over my 25 years in the General Assembly,” said Delegate Kirk
Cox. “The pages love the experience and not only learn government
first hand but make lifelong friendships.”
The pages stay at a hotel in downtown Richmond for the entire
session where they are monitored by chaperones. Each morning they
gather at 8:15 to walk to Capitol Square.
Carsilo said that the House pages work in two teams with each
team rotating Chamber and office duties weekly. Those assigned to
office rotation work in various offices around the General Assembly
building and Capitol by assisting staff, filing, answering phones,
completing delivery and mailing requests and sitting in committee
meetings. Those on Chamber rotation assist the Sergeant-at-Arms
and individual members, monitor doors, obtain document signatures,
and run errands.
Bladen Finch, the director of the Senate Page Program, said
that each day senate pages must check in at their defined work area
which include committee meetings, the clerk’s office and the Senate
Chamber by 8:30 each morning. The pages that were not assigned
to a defined work area that day stand by for requests that come in
by phone or by email. At 11:30 a.m., pages must be stationed at the
Senate Chamber doors, Capitol elevators, Senate Gallery doors,
message computers, and benches on the Senate floor, Finch said.
“They are working with one another to ensure all the little, yet
important, pieces of session operations get completed,” Finch said.
“Tasks such as filling a lunch order, delivering a forgotten iPad, or
extending a greeting to visitors may seem menial and unimportant,
but they quickly realize how their role in fulfilling the little things
equate to the overall efficiency of this massive machine that is
Virginia’s legislature.”
Pages meet back at the hotel at 5 p.m. each day and they have
until 7 p.m. to eat dinner with their page classmates. From 7 to 9
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The General Assembly
Page Program
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