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02/20/2018 02:00 PMIn 2017, Dan Radka, a 17 year-old student at The Morgan School, was given the chance to be a Senate page for Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy in Washington D.C. The Harbor News profiled Radka’s inclusion to the program in November 2017 but due to a program policy Radka wasn’t able to give interviews until the program ended.
The program ran from September 2017 to January 2018, when Dan was able to speak with the Harbor News to shed some light on his time in Washington.
Radka said that his father, David, first fostered his interest in politics, which blossomed when he got to high school.
“My dad made sure that I knew about government and politics, but always let me make my own decisions. I became more invested in politics when I got to high school and I was able to join political clubs and find other people my age who shared my interest. The 2016 election also helped to spark my interest,” Radka said.
Radka’s typical day—which included attending regular classes at the U.S. Senate Page School—started early, much earlier than most students his age start their day.
“Wake up at 5. Downstairs at 5:30 to eat breakfast and check in with teachers before school. First period starts at 6:15. School ends at 9:45 or one hour and 15 minutes before the Senate convenes. Work until 6 if you are on the early shift or until the Senate adjourns if you are on the late shift.”
The work for the Senate was tough, but Radka noted the schoolwork posed as much or more of a challenge.
“During the day I took the hardest classes I have ever taken,” he said.
At the Senate, the pages were responsible for everything from setting up the chamber with easels or lecterns for Senate sessions to getting the senators water.
“The job of a page is relatively simple, but the environment makes it difficult. During the little free time that I had, the other pages and I spent our time exploring the city and try to recover lost sleep,” Radka said.
“My favorite part was meeting people from all over the country. I was able to make friends with people who believe completely different things than me. I was able to learn how people can believe the opposite that I do, and still appreciate their opinions,” he said.
“Living in Clinton, Connecticut means that many people are liberal and the conservatives are not very conservative. It’s weird to live with people who thought that gay people were going to hell or climate change doesn’t matter because the Armageddon is coming. That is a select and extreme few. But on other, nonsocial issues, my friends made some good points and changed some of my views slightly. At the very least, I can understand other viewpoints even if I do not agree with them,” Radka said.
During his time in the program, Radka was able to observe how congress works on a day-to-day basis, and form some opinions about the way the legislature should work.
During the program, “I learned a lot about the way that government works, or doesn’t. I was able to see that there are a lot of senators who really care about their constituents and stand up for what they believe in. Maybe not Mitch McConnell, but most other senators really care. The government is slow and gridlocked because so many people care so strongly. I learned that government should be based on compromise,” Radka said,
Besides a new school, a new city, a new job, and living with roommates in a dorm, there was one other major adjustment the teenager had to make.
“They did take my cell phone and restricted our access to the Internet. Only the computers in the basement had Internet and they were only for school use,” Radke said. “I did not miss my cell phone at all. It’s hard to tell a teenager that they can live without all of their gadgets and social media, but it honestly makes life a little less stressful. I liked not having a cell phone because I was able to sit down with 26 other people my age and have a conversation without any distractions,” Radka said.