Paging provides an opportunity to give high school students a birds-eye view of how the states government works.
State Representative Michelle Davis knows how important it is for students to page.
“Paging is an opportunity for students 13 years old up to seniors in high school to come to the State House and learn the legislative process,” Davis said.
Paging can be an important introduction to the legislative process, and Davis stressed the importance of the knowledge gained through paging.
“It gets the students involved in the process and meets their local elected officials and gives them insights into how the state works and how bills are passed,” Davis said.
Students spend the day at the State House; take tours, complete mock bills, meet representatives, and most importantly, get to see representatives vote and pass bills. There are multiple ways to sign up to page.
“You can go to your state legislature website or Indiana’s general assembly website or contact your state Rep. or state Senator,” Davis said.
Representatives get to experience students that come in and page. Because of this, they get a lot of interesting perspectives and funny stories over the years.
“My favorite memory is when a young man came to page and he had a list of questions. He had done his homework on my bills, and he found questions in all of my bills, he had me answer all the questions. Most students don’t come in with lists of questions or even do research. It was definitely something I had never experienced,” Davis said.
Davis has had many pages over her time in office, and some GHS students have paged for her; sophomore Mia Shaffer is one of those students, and she had many favorite moments.
“My favorite part was watching the representative vote and pass bills and debate. It was a super interesting insight. Students don’t know how our government works, and I think it’s cool for students to learn about it. For example, we got to hear about a gun control bill and seeing both sides of the story was really interesting,” Shaffer said.
After taking tours, the representatives start a session and the pages get to sit in the chamber and experience first-hand representation of our government.
“They were arguing and discussing future bills that would affect us now and in the future, that was super cool,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer introduced a friend to the paging experience; sophomore Lola Trent accompanied her last year. Trent also recognizes the importance of the process.
“I think it’s important because it gives students a better understanding of government processes and how they work. I really liked the mock bill part. It was really interesting getting insight on the whole process. I also enjoyed the tour because I liked the behind the scenes look at the statehouse. We got to look at the legislative assistant offices and got to see the Indiana Supreme Court,” Trent said.
The tour shows all the different branches of Indiana’s government. Trent enjoyed seeing all the places that are usually closed to the general public.
“We got to see offices and the judicial offices. We got to see people working for our states, that was awesome,” Trent said.
