For 2005 grad Chris Clark, the road to Stanford began on Capitol Hill.

A farm kid out of Western Illinois, 16-year-old Clark wanted to “get out and get away” from home. He snatched his golden opportunity by joining the House congressional page program in 2000.

“Being a part of the page program was a stepping stone to Stanford for me,” Clark said. A counselor at the program urged him to apply to Stanford, a school that he, “the kid from the middle of nowhere,” had never considered. According to Clark, the page program changed his life.

However, two weeks after ABC News exposed Rep. Mark Foley for sending sexually explicit emails and instant messages to former congressional pages, a handful of elected officials have suggested suspending the page program altogether. But Clark and other Stanford students and alumni who participated in the program have come to its defense.

Several former pages told The Daily that the best part of the program was, in fact, the close interaction with members of Congress. Clark said that to a certain extent, pages were vulnerable to congressmen, but in general a good dynamic formed between them.

“We really do kind of idolize a lot of the members of Congress, because that’s kind of why we’re there,” he said. “We want to see firsthand the people who run our country. To have someone take advantage of that is really unfortunate,” Clark said.

Congressional pages, who range from ages 16-18, populate the House and Senate floors, running errands and answering phones while getting an inside look at Congress in action.

“There were only a handful of members that were really nice to us and took an interest in our lives,” he continued. “Those are the members we remember, and that’s why everyone would probably remember Congressman Foley.”

Clark described Foley as one of the few “friendlier” members, but not in an unusual way.

“He was definitely one of those people who would say hello and stop by to ask how things were going," he said. "To me that didn’t set off any alarms, but in hindsight, it makes you wonder. There were rumors flying around that he was gay — ‘cause you know, we’re 16 and we talk about these things — but that was it, rumors, nothing about harassment.”

Sophomore Theo Milonopoulos, who worked as a page in 2003, said he was shocked by the Foley scandal, but strongly believed the program is not to blame.

“I got to meet some members of Congress while I was a page who were extremely congenial. There was no sense of discomfort or impropriety,” said Milonopoulos, whose twin brother Niko was a page the same year. “The flaw lies with this particular congressman, and the real problem is with the attempt of the Congressional leadership to cover it up.”

Jess Lipschultz, a Stanford alum and graduate of the 1999 page program, said the negative attention would, if nothing else, discourage parents from allowing their teenagers to participate.

“I was 16, and it was difficult for my parents to let me go to D.C. to take part in the page program before all this even happened. Some parents will think twice,” she said.

Lipschultz, who currently teaches high school English now, said the recent controversy was unfortunate.

“I was going to promote the program to my students, but now I’m not even going to go there until this whole scandal blows over.”

Stanford students and graduates are not the only former pages leaping to the program’s defense. A new Facebook group, “Save the Congressional page program,” boasts more than 420 members, all alumni of the program.

Both Lipschultz and Clark said the program would undoubtedly undergo reforms. In 1983, two sex scandals involving congressmen and underage pages led to previous reforms of the page program.

Clark explained the current program is overseen by outsiders, the Office of the Clerk and a board made up of members of Congress, all of whom may hesitate to “blow the whistle” on something similar to a sex scandal. The problem is compounded by the fact that young pages would also hesitate to incriminate a member of Congress.

“If a member had sent me emails that made me uncomfortable, I’m not sure I would have taken them to the Clerk, just because it’s a member of Congress,” he said. “We looked up to them — and you don’t want to start something messy.”

Clark suggested putting the program under the guidance of former pages, who would be more approachable counselors in cases of harassment. “I don’t think a former page would be as unwilling to blow the whistle,” he said.

Clark and the other interviewees all agreed, though, the page program was a memorable experience that gave them the opportunity to see the human side of the most powerful people in the country.

“Regardless of whether they are pages or not, there will be people in power who exploit children,” Lipschultz said.

The Foley scandal, however, does not reflect the nature of the page program, Lipschultz said.

The program showed me that [the members of Congress] are passionate and hardworking,” she said. “It actually made me a lot less cynical about the way our government works.”

Clark expressed that he still admires the congressmen he observed during the page program. “It’s still my dream job,” Clark said. “I would love to be a member of Congress someday.”