An up-close and personal peek at the inner workings of the U.S. Senate during the spring semester was an eye-opener for Roaring Fork High School (RFHS) soon-to-be senior Mali Sparhawk.
After nearly five months working as a page for the Senate Democrats, Sparhawk said she came away with a better understanding of the political process and who politicians really are as people.
It was a comment by Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, during the closing ceremony for the spring session that seemed to sum things up for Sparhawk.
“Democracy is messy” is what he said.
“I think that’s what I learned, is that if everything goes perfectly, that’s not what democracy is,” Sparhawk said. “The process is meant to be slow, and to allow for everyone’s voice to be heard.”
In the end, it’s more about relationships, rather than party lines, she said.
The relationships she built with her fellow pages that she lived and studied with during her time in Washington, D.C. also resonated.
“Sure, some of them have beliefs that I don’t agree with, but just like our political leaders you can still be friends and you can still go to dinner together. We should not be picking our friendships and who we respect based on political beliefs,” Sparhawk said.
It’s an ideal she plans to carry with her as she completes her final year at Roaring Fork, where she is on student council, and in the broader Carbondale community where she’s a youth representative on the Town’s Parks and Recreation Commission.
She intends to apply this fall to be admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy, where she wants to study political science, serve her country and eventually go into politics.
Sparhawk — daughter of Ryan Sparhawk and two-term Carbondale Trustee Erica Sparhawk — learned of the Senate Page Program from an announcement in her school newsletter, and decided it was something she wanted to pursue.
The highly-competitive program brings 30 high school students from across the country each semester to Washington to experience and assist with the daily workings of the U.S. Senate.
Pages help deliver correspondence and materials within the Capitol building, prepare the Senate Chamber for sessions, assist with roll call votes, carry bills and amendments to the desk and support senators and staff during floor debates.
Sparhawk was skipped over for the fall program, but reapplied and was accepted for the spring semester. She was at a speech meet with her RFHS teammates when she got the word.
“It couldn’t have been a more perfect time to find out, because everyone I’m close friends with at school was there to support me,” she said.
Sparhawk was sponsored by Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, but technically worked for all Senate Democrats. Another group of pages worked for the Senate Republicans.
She arrived in Washington on Jan. 26, checked into her dorm, got her official uniform and quickly learned what she was in for. Pages attend an on-site school, but their classes revolve around the Senate schedule.
That meant getting up at 5am and being ready for classes to start at 6:15. Classes would run until the Senate session began, which varied by day.
Their studies included a fair amount of civics, which went hand-in-hand with their work. They also learned about such things as what the different paintings hanging in the Capitol and the Senate and House chambers depicted, and where they originated, Sparhawk said.
Her time there included such historic events as President Trump’s Joint Address to Congress on March 4, following his inauguration to a rare second nonconsecutive term, and the record 25-hour speech by Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, on March 31-April 1 protesting the Trump agenda.
The daily routine for the pages included making sure each of the senators had their drink of choice — only water, sparkling water or milk are allowed on the floor.
By the way, Sen. Hickenlooper prefers his water iced, and Sen. Michael Bennet, Colorado’s other Democratic senator, prefers his water at room temperature.
“During one of our late nights, one of the senators asked for half sparkling water, half milk, mixed,” Sparhawk recalled.
Of course, there are some real characters, she recounted.
Sen. Booker, for instance, would often ask the pages to tell him a joke, and would reward them with cake leftover from the Democratic Caucus lunches.
Though the pages are not supposed to engage the senators in conversation, some senators would acknowledge the pages as they were holding the doors open for them to pass in and out of the chamber.
“The ones who did talk to us, we’d compliment them on their ties, or something,” she said. That elicited a response from Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island: “It was only $5, don’t tell anyone.”
One of the more amusing interactions was when Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, was walking out, and Republican Sen. John Barrasso from Wyoming pulls up next to Sparhawk and asks, “‘Hey, why aren’t you serenading him?’”
“And then he started playing air trumpet, and so we started playing air trumpet with him,” Sparhawk said. “Leader Schumer, who never talks to the pages, gave a bow to us and Sen. Barrasso just walks out laughing … that was a good moment,” she said.
Those kinds of encounters reminded her that, though they hold one of the highest offices in the land, they’re still just everyday people beneath that persona.
And, that political differences don’t have to be barriers to friendships and working relationships, Sparhawk said.
Sen. Booker and Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, are good friends, she said, and once invited some of the pages to lunch.
“They talked a lot about, ‘Hey, obviously we don’t agree on some things and we don’t have the same political beliefs, but we can’t get anywhere without compromise,’” Sparhawk recounted.
She also witnessed one of the veteran Democratic senators giving advice to a freshman Republican senator on how to juggle parenthood and be present in his kids’ lives while keeping up with the demands of being in the Senate.
“They went up and voted opposite ways, then came back and continued the conversation,” Sparhawk said.
Only once does she recall being asked what she thought about a legislative matter. It was on the topic of using artificial intelligence in K-12 education and increasing student access to various AI web platforms, which Sparhawk indeed has some opinions about.
However, pages are not allowed to share those opinions while in their official roles, so she tactfully just told him she thought he gave a good speech.
“I do think I have more respect for all of our senators after this experience,” Sparhawk said. “At the end of the day, they all truly do love their jobs. Even though they have a prestigious position, they’re just people.”
She added that it also instilled in her a love for public service, and an even stronger desire to serve.