By Ross Metcalf
Running around on the floor of the House of Representatives to deliver notes to Representatives may not seem appealing to many students, but it was for several Fort Smith students.
On March 28th, nine students from Future School of Fort Smith volunteered as pages at the Arkansas House of Representatives in Little Rock. Rep. Matthew Pitch, R-Fort Smith, sponsored the students to volunteer as pages. The students traveled with former Judge Jim Spears on the trip.
“I am intrigued in how the government works. I wanted to experience it first hand,” student Grace Hosier said about volunteering as a page.
During the session, the students acted as pages on the floor of the House of Representatives. The students would run notes between representatives on the floor or help them with other tasks the representatives needed. While that was their main task, the students were able to pay attention to bills up for votes.
“I thought there would be a whole lot of arguing and be really rambunctious, but it was the opposite,” Latayvia Shade said.
“It was interesting to see how fast the session was going. I thought it took a long time,” Hosier said about her experience on the floor. “It was chaotic organization.”
Running notes to different representatives was not all that the students did that day. The students were given a tour of the capitol building. Brandon Skiles visited the treasury where he was given the opportunity to hold $400,000.
“We were nervous to be on the floor as pages. However, after the experience we wanted to do it again,” Skiles said.