What is the Senate Page Program?
The Senate Page Program is a fancy term for an official high school internship at the U.S. Senate in Washington D.C. This program is offered only to high school juniors and provides the opportunity to work with actual senators and government leaders. Students in the Senate Page Program are sponsored by local senators and work for their sponsoring senator’s party in the U.S. Senate.
The program is highly selective, with only 30 Senate Pages accepted each term. There are four terms annually. One begins in the fall for four months, another begins in the spring for five months, and two shorter terms start at the beginning of each summer.
How Does the Senate Page Program Work?
During the school year, the Senate Page Program is a residential program. Pages live together in a dorm located two blocks from the Hart Senate Building. They take classes beginning at 6:15 AM daily and after classes, pages work while Senate is in session, typically from 10 AM – 4 PM, though sometimes much longer if Senate has not adjourned for the day.
Pages are provided breakfast and dinner daily and pay for their room and board out of the stipend they earn through working as a page. The stipend is generally modest, reportedly based off of a roughly $26,000 annual salary, and uniform costs are also taken from it.
The summer term is slightly different. There is no academic component during summer months and pages are permitted to live with friends or relatives, rather than in the dorm. Dorm residency is still available for those who choose it.
While enrolled in the program, students are held to exceptionally high standards for conduct and dress. Room inspections are conducted regularly and students should expect to spend 12-13 hours studying and working each day. It is a rigorous schedule and pages are required to have a doctor’s approval before beginning the program.
Who Is Eligible to Be a Senate Page?
Senate Pages must be in their junior year of high school. If you’re interested in the summer terms, you may be either a rising junior or a rising senior. You must be 16 or 17 years old, a U.S. citizen, and a student. In order to apply, you must have a GPA of at least 3.0.
Pages are sponsored by individual senators. Each senator is usually given the chance to sponsor a page during only one term per year, and he or she generally alternates between male and female pages each year. Because you must apply through a senator, the exact application process and selection criteria vary. Many senators provide more precise information on their websites.
You can find some examples on Senator Mark Warner’s U.S. Senate Page Program site, or on Senator Charles Schumer’s Senate Page Program site.
Sessions:
The Spring 2019 session will run from January 28, 2019 to June 7, 2019
For More Info:
Contact your senator’s office for more information on applying to be a Senate Page.
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