Abbie Bonham had such a great experience as a Senate page in Washington, D.C., she wants other high school students to know about the opportunity. 

“There aren’t a lot of kids that know about the program, so not that many apply, especially for (the program) during the school year. I loved D.C.! I got to have a great connection with U.S. history. I didn’t know a ton about government or the Senate before I was in it and I learned so many things. I think other kids deserve to have the same opportunity,” she said. 

Bonham, the daughter of Megan and Brad Bonham, will be a senior at Corner Canyon High School this fall. She applied for the United States Senate Page Program last July, was accepted, and spent last September through January living, going to school and working in the nation’s capital. She was the only page from Utah during her time there. The program also runs for a January-June term as well as summer opportunities. 

“There are 30 kids in the entire group during the school year. During the summer, they have something like 75 kids,” she said. 

A friend of Bonham’s dad who served as a page in 2005 told her about the program.

 “He said there’s this really cool thing you can do and you should do it,” she said. She was sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee. 

Requirements for the program include having a 3.0 or higher G.P.A. and being a U.S. citizen between 16-17 years old. Some senators require applicants to write an essay and have letters of recommendation. “Most kids write a letter or an email to their senator (seeking sponsorship). It varies based on what state you live in,” Bonham said. 

The Senate page schedule for school and work is rigorous and the program has strict rules. Participants live together in the Daniel Webster Senate Page Residence with four to six students per room. Proctors also live in the building to monitor the pages and enforce curfews. Participants go to school in the basement of their building with other Senate pages, taught by instructors employed by the program. 

“The United States Senate Page School provides students with a sound academic program of study…courses offered are those considered most important to juniors. All courses offered are considered honors level and appear as such on report cards and transcripts,” the program’s website says.

The pages’ typical day starts with waking at 5 a.m. for breakfast and getting ready for school starting at 6 a.m. Classes go until one hour before the Senate convenes, between 9-11 a.m. The Senate start time changes daily and is established the night before. The school schedule varies daily, depending on the Senate’s start time. 

“The Senators don’t go in on Fridays, so we have longer school times that day. Early Senate start times meant our classes were only 35 minutes. Since we didn’t have a ton of class time, they would give us a lot of homework. It was a combination of working a lot and doing homework on top of that,” Bonham said. 

After school, participants typically grab a quick snack, walk to a nearby Senate building for work, then take the underground subway that goes to the Capitol building. There they would work out of the cloakroom assigned to their Senator’s party (Democrat or Republican) and work on the Senate floor. 

“Whenever they had votes, all the pages were required to be out on the floor, holding doors open and doing whatever was required. After votes, they would have us take the roll call, make copies of it, and take it out to all the offices including the press office and the secretary’s office. We had our own roll call cards that told us where we were supposed to go each run. Since I was on the floor 90% of the time, I was around all the Senators. I’ve met all 100, both Republican and Democrat…including Vice President J.D. Vance and former Vice President Kamala Harris,” she said.

Weekends are reserved for field trips. Among Bonham’s most memorable were Gettysburg and a trip to Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. 

“They’d rent a bus and we did long road trips,” she said. Students were allowed to go to church on Sunday if they chose to, or relax or do homework.

Senate pages are required to wear navy blue pant suits with white button-down shirts and name tags. The boys wear a tie and girls are allowed only simple jewelry. Uniform checks are performed every morning. 

Pages pay fees for room and board and field trips while being paid an annual salary of $3,600 pro-rated for their five-month employment. “You get paid a lot for a teenager,” Bonham said.

Bonham admits to making mistakes that turned into learning experiences. “It’s definitely a learning curve. Whenever we would mess up taking papers for a vote anywhere, we’d have to retry everything. Some Senators were patient and some were definitely not,” she said.

Bonham didn’t have any favorites among the Senators. “The media paints the Senate to be super divided, but they’re really not. They’re all working together and trying as hard as they can to do what they believe in,” she said.

One big positive of the program was something Bonham was initially reluctant about. 

“We didn’t have our cell phones the whole time. We had landlines in our rooms, but they had a safe they put the cell phones in and you could only check your phone out if your parents visited. Other than that, no cell phones. At first it was kind of nerve-wracking because I wondered what I’d do in an emergency, but once I got there, it was so nice. I feel like you can become better friends with people and not be on your device the entire time. Focusing in school and all of that was so much easier to do,” she said. 

Now that she has her phone back and is back home in Draper, Bonham and her Senate page friends keep in touch. 

“We have a big group chat and we text all the time. Some of the kids have already visited each other. Honestly, the best part of the whole program was getting to meet all the other kids from everywhere,” she said.

More information can be found at pageprogram.senate.gov. λ