June 15, 2006


Rep. Lofgren sponsors Leland student Shaan Yadav-Ranjan as congressional page

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) has announced that her nomination of Shaan Yadav-Ranjan, a resident of Almaden Valley and student at Leland High School, as a congressional page for the 2006 Summer Session was approved by the House leadership.

Yadav-Ranjan will act as a messenger for the U.S. House of Representatives and gain firsthand knowledge of the legislative process at the national level. He will be working as a page for the month of July.

"I am extremely excited to be able to offer Shaan this opportunity," said Rep. Lofgren. "Shaan demonstrated his diligence and eagerness when he worked in my San Jose office as an intern, and I know he will represent San Jose well in our nation's capitol. Myself and my entire staff look forward to working with him in the House this summer."

There is a formal nomination process to become a page. You are not appointed to be a page; you are accepted into the page program. Nomination is a mandatory part of the application process. To be considered for nomination, a student must be at least 16 and between their sophomore and junior years, and must be in contact with a member of congress who can nominate them to be considered into the program. The applicant must fill out an application consisting of three letters of recommendation, the applicant’s official grades transcript (you must have higher than a 3.0), and a list of their activities. The House leader handpicks each applicant.

As a messenger for the House of Representatives, Shaan will gain firsthand knowledge of the legislative process at the national level. Each page will work in the capital complex during business hours. Once a week a pair of pages will be chosen to stay on the floor until congress ends the session. Sometimes pages have been on the floor until early in the morning.

Yadav-Ranjan is extremely excited about the opportunity, “to get a firsthand knowledge of the workings of the U.S. government. To see history made in front of my eyes and play a small supporting role is an amazing opportunity. I plan to keep a journal of each day.”

Yadav-Ranjan has been a commissioner of the Santa Clara County Youth Task Force for the past four years. In this position he represents over 42,000 youth, and has spoken on youth issues before the Human Relations Commission and presented workshops to middle school students on service learning. At Leland High School he is on the varsity debate and football teams.

While Yadav-Ranjan has not decided on a career yet, he says his interests are in history and math and he expects to get at least a masters level of education. “However, what ever it may be, the work ethics, the knowledge, and the leadership skills I will learn [as a congressional page] will be priceless in any field of work,” he said.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren is serving her sixth term in Congress representing most of the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County. She serves as the ranking member on the Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk

Assessment. She is also a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Administration Committee. Congresswoman Lofgren is chair of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation consisting of 33 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives from California.