Submitted by the Washington State Legislature
Oliver Gries-Hoffman, 14, served as a page in the Washington State Senate during the week of February 22, the seventh week of the 2016 Legislative Session.
“I was happy to have Oliver’s help,” said Sen. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma, who sponsored Gries-Hoffman’s week in the Legislature. “I hope he had fun and learned something new.”
During their week at the Capitol, pages assist senators and staff, hear lectures from guest speakers, and attend page school where they create their own bills in a mock committee setting. Gries-Hoffman worked on a bill that would requiring police to wear body cameras during duty. This activity offers pages a firsthand look at the challenges and effort it takes to create a new law and allows them to step into the shoes of an elected official for a week.
“The bills have to be worded very specifically,” said Gries-Hoffman. “It was really fun.”
While pages are required to attend page school for a portion of each day, they also have many other responsibilities. One of their primary responsibilities is delivering important documents to the many offices around the Capitol campus, which gives them the opportunity to meet many people. Gries-Hoffman said he was happy that there was something to do all the time rather than just being in a classroom all day, even though it was tiring.
“There’s a lot of walking, a lot of stairs,” he said. “And free food if you’re lucky.”
The page program is open to any Washington student between 14 and 17 years old. Gries-Hoffman encouraged his peers to look into the program and to try the experience for themselves.
“It’s so worth it – it is really a lot of fun,” he said.
Gries-Hoffman is a freshman at Olympia High School and has a passion for physics. He hopes to work for NASA in the astrophysics department. In his spare time, Gries-Hoffman loves to play soccer, run track, do CrossFit and hopes to join the robotics club this year.
For more information about the Senate Page Program, contact SenatePageProgram@leg.wa.gov
