For about five months, junior Carden Truong would wake up every day at 5 a.m. in the Daniel Webster Senate Page Residence in Washington, D.C. After regular class ended near 10 a.m., he and his fellow Senate pages were off to the capitol building.
“Unlike all the other programs, this was a semester-long program,” Truong said. “All we had was each other and that’s it.”
Senate pages are typically high school students who help U.S. senators in Washington, D.C., accomplish certain tasks and assignments. Truong’s friends and family were skeptical at first at the idea of Truong applying as this is a highly selective and competitive program where a senator from your home state has to appoint you themselves.
“My parents honestly thought I was going to get rejected,” Truong said. “I think that’s fair considering only one kid gets elected from the entire state but — I got in.”
During regular school days, Truong’s classes consisted of four periods: pre-calculus, English, social studies and science. However, there’s a secret that Truong’s endless research and planning didn’t prepare him regarding his schedule.
“The interesting thing that not many people know, they say on the program website each class is an hour long,” Truong said. “But they actually set the time of the class based on what time the Senate convenes.”
Specifically, the Senate would start early on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which meant that each class would be reduced to 30 minutes instead and school would end around 8:45 a.m. This means that after leaving his classroom, which was located in a basement below their residence building, Truong was off to work right next door to the Russell Senate Office and Capitol building.
“I delivered documents, whether it be around the Capitol or the office buildings, and I archived them on the floor once a vote had been called,” Truong said. “I also set up the senators’ speaking equipment, their podiums, and I also got them water.”
When Truong first arrived, he found himself as one of the more introverted pages of the group. As being a Senate page means having your phone and all access to social media taken away, Truong was worried about how he would survive the next few months. Even so, he pushed himself out of his comfort zone and was able to have one of the best experiences of his internship.
“The most memorable thing I’ll remember is when I delivered the Laken Riley Act that was recently passed. It was signed by President [Donald] Trump,” Truong said. “I was the sole page elected to go and deliver it.”
Among his favorite moments were also visiting the National Archives and seeing the exact paper that George Washington read in his inaugural address, watching President Trump be certified into presidency, and having Sen. Lisa Murkowski from Alaska give him a chocolate bear for his birthday. Other senators that Truong met included senators Corey Booker, Mitch McConnell, Katie Britt, Andy Kim, James Justice and Justice’s dog.
“He brought his dog, Babydog Justice, and we all had a meeting with him,” Truong said. “That dog actually has a pretty interesting career, because he went to the Republican National Committee, and according to The New York Times, he got the same reception as if Donald Trump was there.”
Overall, the program came with even more benefits than what was expected. The program provided an option for federal healthcare, a therapist, an employment assistance program, and a doctor visit in case someone wasn’t feeling well. Additionally, the Senate pages earned a monthly salary of $1,800, totaling up to around $9,000 after housing fees and other payments were deducted. Truong has mentioned that all of his income will be going to his college fund, which he says was a great investment.
“I think this program definitely has set in stone that I need to do state politics. I think Austin will be a better place for me than D.C.,” Truong said. “The districts are smaller, it’s more vocal and it’s more personalized.”
Now that this unique experience has come to an end, Truong is happy to be back and delve deeper into the state politics and future that awaits him. He recommends this program for those who are truly passionate about political science, willing to put in the work of balancing both a full-time job and school life and wanting to have a career within the U.S. government body. After roughly five months of spending time with historical legends and important figures, Truong is satisfied to know this is where he truly wants to belong.
“We were in the same place where the Civil War debates were, we were in the same place great senators like Daniel Webster spoke, we were next to the office where Trump signed his first executive orders,” Truong said. “We were in the place where history was made.”
This story was originally published on The Crimson Connection on March 20, 2025.
