South Range student to work in U.S. Senate starting today
By ROBERT CONNELLY
GREENFORD
As Hazel Minich begins her first day as a Senate page today, it’s about helping people.
Her grandfather, who lives in Pennsylvania, first mentioned the program to her when she was in middle school, but it had drifted to the back of her mind until this past fall.
“He’s always inspired me to be interested in politics and just take that route in my life and serve justice in our system,” said Minich, a 16-year-old Greenford resident.
She is a junior at South Range, applied in September and is one of 30 Senate pages working for the next few months in Washington, D.C.
She describes what she will be doing as a cross between an intern and a secretary.
The office of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, told her she was accepted Dec. 23. She had a phone interview in November for the position.
That led to a fast turnaround, from making sure credits would be transferable to South Range, to shopping for her dorm-room supplies. Pages are paid for their work, and they balance work and school during the program in the capital. The work will entail anything from delivering correspondence on the Senate floor to preparing the chambers for that day’s session. Minich also will continue her German language studies on Sundays while away from home.
Steve Rohan, South Range High School principal, said the program is student-driven and in his 20 years in education, he had not had a student selected to the program.
“That’s the kind of program that really fits that girl. She’s the perfect person for that program and definitely a testament to her,” Rohan said.
In a news release, Brown talked about the selection of Minich.
“Her commitment to serving her community through Key Club International is a testament to who she is and how she was raised,” he said. “I am glad that Hazel is one of the few students chose nationwide to serve the Senate, and I look forward to working with her.”
Minich doesn’t know how many Ohioans she competed against — it’s restricted to juniors who are 16 or 17 years old. She listed some of her qualifications as serving as the lieutenant governor for Division 21 the Ohio Division of Kiwanis Key Club International as well as participating in cross country and speech and debate at South Range.
Minich said the cellphones of all the pages are taken away before the first day and locked away until a week during spring break — it’s a national security issue.
“You don’t want a bunch of 16- and 17-year-olds, making the inner-workings of the government, having their phones going off every second,” she said. “We don’t have Wi-Fi when we’re in the dorms, so it’s a cultural shock.”
She doesn’t know much about the other 29 Senate pages besides reading local media reports on a few of them from across the country.
“I’ve always wanted to have an experience before college where I can be mentored a little bit, but not be completely on my own. So it’s kind of like a gentle immersion experience,” she said. “I’m just wonderfully excited about it. Everything in my life has just fallen into place because of this.”
During her time in the country’s capital, she is hopeful that she will be able to see how the U.S. House of Representatives works. She also is looking forward to meeting U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
“She’s from the other side of the country, Hawaii,” she said. “She doesn’t concentrate on one place. She has to concentrate on all the islands of Hawaii, so that’s going to be different for every single place. So she has to really think about it.”
Minich graduates from the program in early June and will take a final test for German once back home.