Eggebrecht spends time at Capitol as page

If you know Malta High School senior Taylor Eggebrecht at all, you know she stays busy.

From running cross country to coaching youth basketball and from being named to the Montana Coaches Association (MCA) Academic All-State Team to being a member of such organizations as BPA, Malta Key Club and reAct, or volunteering at 4-H and the Malta Boys and Girls Club, Eggebrecht generally has her hands full. With that, it came as no surprise that she recently served as a page in the Montana House of Representatives where her duties included running errands, delivering messages to the representatives, distributing bills, and working on the floor of the House during the current legislative session.

"It was so exciting," Eggebrecht said. "Sitting in on sessions was so much fun. We got to see how the entire legislative process works; from a bill being created to making it into a law and the steps that it goes through in the house and watching everyone's discussion on it."

Taylor is the daughter of Malta's Brian and Vikki Eggebrecht. Montana House Representative, and fellow Malta resident, Casey Knudsen, sponsored Taylor for this position which she completed in mid-February.

Eggebrecht said she will attend Carroll College in Helena next year where she will double-major in political science and psychology. She explained that she is still trying to figure out what she will do with the two degrees, but said that as of today, she would like to use a psychology degree to find a full-time job and hopes to use the political science degree to perhaps, someday, chase her political aspirations.

"Being in the legislature is interesting to me," Eggebrecht said. "I'm not talking about at the national level. The Montana legislature is much different and that could definitely be an option."

Eggebrecht said that each of the pages she worked with in Helena was asked at the outset of their experience to be non-partisan while working in the State Capitol for the week they were there. She said she went into the page job with an open mind and enjoyed the debates that took place (so much so that she now regularly watches sessions at the Capitol on the internet) and was pleasantly amazed at how Republicans and Democrats work together at the State level.

"It was surprising in a good way to see how the representatives interacted with each other," Eggebrecht said. "I think a lot of people have this view of politicians, especially at the national level, where the two sides just can't get along and they are so divided. It's really not like that in Montana. They were all extremely respectful of one another and watching them debate with each other, they weren't split, it wasn't as much right and left and along party lines."