Caja Edwards, a Charlottesville High School Sophomore, recently completed the Virginia House of Delegates Page Program. The program is where around 30, thirteen and fourteen-year-olds are selected to be a page for the Virginia General Assembly. The program lasts the length of the General Assembly Session, 7 weeks in odd-numbered years and 9 weeks in even-numbered years. The program also exists within the Virginia Senate. For the duration of the session, the pages are paired with a roommate and live in a hotel in Richmond. The required attire is a blue blazer, grey pants, and white button-up shirt. In Caja’s words, the program was very “prestigious” with a lot of responsibility put on the pages.
Pages must balance school and work every day. There is a mandatory 2-hour study hall in the evenings, from 7 to 9. Pages must keep their grades up or else they are kicked out of the program, and keep in contact with their teachers, who send work to them virtually. Every day is a new adventure, with pages switching through jobs frequently. Work occurs between two different buildings, the General Assembly Building and the Capitol. Jobs include working on the floor, delivering documents, giving tours, and so much more. Caja’s favorite job was support services, where she did deliveries of all sorts in between buildings. She would be assigned a delivery from a legislative assistant to deliver to some other office or delegate or another legislative assistant. Caja loved this job because she could “run back and forth [between buildings] and just have fun.”
However, the program wasn’t all work and school. Throughout the entirety of the program, pages were participating in a service project, where they would make care baskets for cancer patients. Pages were asked to bring in supplies from their community and then the baskets were assembled and delivered to the patients. There was also a big basketball game, which is hosted annually, where the Delegates from the House of Delegates play the Senators from the Senate. Pages were tasked with the biggest request of them all: being the loudest cheerleaders. As the Delegates and the Senators battled for pride and a trophy, the pages screamed their hearts out and lost their voices cheering them on. This year, although the House of Delegates did not win the basketball game (that honor went to the Senate), the House pages out-screamed the Senate pages and won the spirit.
One of the things Caja loved about the program was meeting new people. She made lifelong connections with other pages, some of whom she talks to every day. She also met famous people, such as astronauts and even Ian Armitage (best known for his role as Young Sheldon). As far as advice goes for interested applicants, Caja says “It’s a big responsibility thing. You have to know how to manage your time well…you have to be focused.”
If you’re interested in applying for the program, feel free to ask Caja any questions you have! She can be emailed at [email protected]. You could also talk to your local representatives: Mrs. Amy Lauffer and Mrs. Katrina Callsen (depending on where you live in/around the city) in the House of Delegates, who can be reached through their respective websites.
