Pages, who are selected from each state by their RNC members, said that they were impressed by the forum and lunch at the club’s Harvard Hall, despite having already been dined at the New York Stock Exchange and having attended a New York Yankees game.
“It was very interesting,” said Brad Hansen, a junior at the University of Nebraska. Hansen added that the pages were responsible for passing out signs to the delegates on the RNC floor and instructing them when to be “excited.”
“We’re the ones who change the signs [on the convention floor] from ‘We Salute the Troops’ to ‘A Nation of Courage,’” said Daniel Suhr, a student at Marquette University.
The IOP sponsored a similar forum at the Democratic National Convention in July. But Nowinski said that event was open to the public so the questions were more balanced.
“[It was a] different crowd,” he said. “[But] these kids knew their stuff.”
—Staff writer Joseph M. Tartakoff can be reached at tartakof@fas.harvard. edu.