You never know what it’s like behind the scenes until you step inside.
Reeltown High School sophomores Aubrey Lovelady and Galyn von Gal got to have a one-of-a-kind experience to see how the Alabama legislature works. Both students served as pages for Sen. Jay Hovey for three days this month.
Lovelady said they would get anything the senators needed while they were on the chamber floor. The main objective was delivering copies of the bill or amendments. However, they would also run copies of the bill with added amendments to those upstairs, who might be pushing for said amendments. Von Gal added sometimes they would deliver messages from one senator to another too.
It was an eye-opening experience, Lovelady said. Stuff like this happens every day and they had no clue the amount of work that really goes into it. Lovelady said she has a newfound respect for people who work in the government. Some people didn’t leave until 1 a.m. or even later out of dedication for their job.
Watching the senate floor, Lovelady said the senators can get really heated in arguments but after the meeting, they still work together — even though they may disagree. It shows how you can disagree with someone but still respect them and their position.
“It is interesting to see everyone’s different arguing style too,” Lovelady said. “Some people like to go to hard facts, some people are opinion-based, and some people like to play with everyone’s heartstrings.”
Von Gal said working in this role taught her the importance and value of patience. A lot of your days are listening to people — their concerns, arguments and critiques — and some committee meetings took as long as five hours. She said it was also fascinating to watch the senators listen to both sides and weigh the options.
Von Gal said you can really see how much they each fight for their counties and how they work together to find compromises. It is also interesting to see what the state invests in and how they try to be as fair with it as possible.
In order to be a page, the high school students must be nominated. Lovelady's dad is a vet, and her mom is a school counselor, so she didn’t have any connections to politics. But her uncle and grandfather are bankers like Hovey is.
Meanwhile, Von Gal’s grandmother has worked at the senate for years and this was one of her dreams. Many of Von Gal’s cousins have served as pages and she was excited to participate herself.
Outside of the senate, the pages got a tour of the Supreme Court, the Governor’s Office and the underground tunnels between the government buildings. Lovelady said there’s a lot more to the legislature than what you learn just in school.
Hovey also talked to all the pages and let them pick his brain. Lovelady said, being students, they asked about the cell phone ban, and he did a great job breaking it down for them.
Along with Lovelady and Von Gal, there were a total of 10 pages from all over the state. They said it was fun to meet all the other pages too.
“They are very understanding, knowing the pages have never done this before and seeing how can we help them,” Von Gal said.
Outside of school, Lovelady is in Key Club, Beta Club, FFA and FCA. Von Gal is in track, FFA and hopefully volleyball.
