By Hafsa Kamran (YES 2018-2019, Pakistan, Hosted by CIEE in Matthews, NC)

I've always heard different stories and perspectives about what the government does for different people, but never got to chance to know how the government actually works until now. I received the amazing experience of serving as an Governor's Page in North Carolina! My Local Coordinator emailed me to tell me that I was selected for the Governor’s Page program, an educational program designed to engage high school students in state government and community service.

To start off the weeklong program, we first went to a museum for celebrating Black History Month with our Placement Organization. After enjoying touring the museum, we headed off to Raleigh, which is the capital of North Carolina. It was a long drive but it was fun as I was with my friends who are also exchange students. We all were really excited about the first day and were wondering what would happen throughout the program. We were asked to dress formally, which we happily did.

On the first day we met our page coordinator who was really nice and friendly. She told us about what are we going to do this week and what their expectations were for us. There were also some American high school students too. On the first day we went on a tour to the General Assembly and learned how it operates.

After that we went to the State Capitol building, which was relatively historic. It was such an informative and innovative tour, I learned a lot about how the General Assembly and government worked in the early 1800s. That night, we went to a General Assembly session and saw bills get passed,  which was actually pretty quick. The whole week we toured different state buildings and departments and learned how those work and what are they do. We also got a chance to work in the office of these departments. I worked in the Archives in the State Library which was really interesting.

We also went to the Supreme Court and met the Associate and Chief Justice of North Carolina. They told us all about how cases are brought up to the Supreme Court and also the difference between our courts in Pakistan and American courts. We also went on a tour to the historic yet elegant Executive Mansion and got to know it's history. We also met the Governor of North Carolina, Mr. Roy Cooper who was a really humble and appreciative man. He warmly welcomed us to North Carolina and we even had the opportunity to tell him about our countries. We went to a Credit Bureau and learned all about credit cards and credit score. We met the departmental officials of the Departments of Agriculture, Public Engagement, Education and Environmental quality. We went to the Natural Science Museum too which was right in front of the administration building and got surprised to see how interesting and amusing that museum was.

This was probably the best trip I could have ever experienced. Not just because it was informative but also the differences between the Pakistani and the American government was also fascinating. I am so grateful that I got the chance to experience such an amazing week as a Governor’s Page!