G-Prep junior chosen as page
Miss Faller is going to Washington, D.C.
As Idaho’s U.S. Senate Page for the spring 2005 term, she left Coeur d’Alene last Saturday and won’t return until June 10.
“I have always wanted to do this ever since my sister did it six years ago,” says the Gonzaga Preparatory School junior. “Working on the Senate floor, to be at the center of everything that is going on, that’s going to be very cool.”
Idaho Sen. Larry Craig named Faller to the post; she was one of only 30 students nationwide chosen to be a Senate page.
Faller’s days begin at 6:15 a.m. with classes at Senate page school. After absorbing U.S. history, American literature, chemistry and pre-calculus for four hours, she works on the Senate floor until 5 p.m. or until the Senate adjourns for the day.
Faller’s primary duties will be delivering correspondence and legislative material to congressional offices. Pages also take phone messages, call members to the phone, prepare the House and Senate chambers for sessions, and carry bills and amendments to the desk.
Faller knows she will get to meet some of the nation’s most prominent leaders and witness U.S. Senate political debates.
“I am very interested in meeting other people from different areas of the United States,” Faller says.
Faller is a member of the National Honor Society, is president of the French Club, a member and officer of the varsity debate team, a volunteer tutor, and is a self-described “avid skier.” She served as captain of the junior varsity soccer team last fall.
Her long-term educational goal is to attend law school. She has not decided where she will attend college, but she wants to major in political science and minor in languages.
Senate pages must be sponsored by a U.S. senator, and, according to Sandy Patano, state director Craig, “the competition is keen.”
“Students that typically apply for an appointment excel academically, are involved in numerous extracurricular activities, and some even have outside employment,” Patano says.
Selecting one student from an entire state when there are so many highly qualified applicants is extremely difficult, Patano says.
Craig was able to appoint two students from Idaho to serve as pages through May due to a vacancy created by another member of the Senate.
“Mimi Faller is a student that is recognized as a leader by her peers as well as her instructors,” Patano says. “Additionally, Mimi’s persistence and desire to serve as a page, demonstrated by her willingness to apply to the program more than once, paid off. We have every confidence that Mimi will be an outstanding representative of our state.”