GUILFORD -- A Brattleboro Union High School student will be returning to classes in September with a new perspective on American government.

Jacob Knapp, 17, a Guilford resident who will be attending BUHS for his senior year, just completed a month of service as a page in the U.S Senate.

Knapp was the single Vermont teenager chosen by the office of Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., to serve the one-month term as a Senate page.

Pages generally spend the school year in Washington, D.C., working for the senators while taking classes at a special school at Webster Hall near the Capitol building.

When those pages return home for the summer, two one-month sessions are held and Knapp served from early June through July 3.

"It was an incredible experience," Knapp said after returning home to Vermont this month. "Being right there every day on the Senate floor is an experience that not too many people get a chance to have."

Pages must be citizens of the United States and can be only 16 or 17 years old.

They have to maintain a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.

There are 30 pages in the Senate, nominated by the 100 senators.

Senators nominate the high school students on a revolving basis, with more senior senators getting more frequent picks.

Occasionally those senators pass on their choices and Sanders' office heard earlier this year it would be able to choose a page for the summer.

Earlier this year. Sanders sent letters to high schools across Vermont letting juniors and seniors know about the opportunity.

Knapp filled out his application, wrote his letter and hoped for the best.

This was the second time Sanders was able to nominate a page from Vermont since being elected to the Senate in 2007.

"It was a pleasure to nominate Jacob for the position of U.S. Senate page," Sanders said Monday. "He represents what is best about the young people of our state: He is open to the world, committed to his studies, and hopeful about the future of our nation. And he is eager to play a role in the larger political dialogue that will determine the shape of our future."

Knapp was in the Senate as lawmakers debated an extension of the unemployment benefits, a fight which was won by the Republicans who were able to delay any extension. Democrats in the Senate are poised to restore jobless checks to those 2.5 million people whose benefits ran out during the congressional standoff over spending.

One of the biggest lessons Knapp came away with was a greater appreciation for those who don't necessarily share his political views.

Knapp said a lot of time was spent with senators grand-standing, and he called the process frustrating at times, but he also said that regardless of a senator's beliefs, it was always apparent that the legislators were behind what they were fighting for, or against.

"Some of it seems like theater, but when you listen, even if you disagree with what they are saying, you get the feeling that they believe what they were saying," said Knapp. "Sometimes I felt myself agreeing with a point they were making, even when I did not agree with them."

Knapp lived with the other pages and was paid a stipend.

Knapp also said he learned a little bit about insider Washington politics.

In talking with the other pages, Knapp found out that many of them had connections to powerful D.C. families.

But here was a kid from Guilford, who had only been to the nation's capital twice before on school trips, running documents for some of the most powerful men and woman in the country.

"A lot of the kids there seemed to have some kind of relationship with a senator. You could tell there were a lot of connections," he said. "That wasn't the way it worked with me and I was appreciative I got the chance to go down there. It makes you appreciative of being given a fair chance. I've been thinking about majoring in political science in college, and I'm thinking more about that now."