PORTSMOUTH — Washington, D.C. is shaping up to be Ashley Murphy’s home away from home.

The Portsmouth High School senior will be making her third trip in two years — and her second in three months — to our nation’s capital when she flies down next month as one of only two student delegates representing Rhode Island in the United States Senate Youth Program.

“I was super excited to be chosen,” said Murphy. “I’ve wanted it for a little while. I found out about this in my sophomore year but I couldn’t apply because you need some sort of leadership experience.”

She certainly has that now. Murphy is captain of the school’s Model United Nations team, where she hones her skills in diplomacy and global affairs. She’s also a member of the school’s Project Close Up team, which travels to D.C. every year to look at government inside the beltway. This year the group was down there for the presidential inauguration (more about that below).

Murphy is also secretary of communications for the National Honor Society, treasurer for the Future Business Leaders of America, and a student liaison for the Student Civics Liaison Program in Rhode Island. A page for the R.I. House of Representatives, she’s also the founder of the Politics Club at PHS, and served as a poll worker during the November election.

“I’m definitely super interested in politics,” said Murphy, who plans to student political science or international relations when she attends college in the fall. And, she says she loves D.C.

The United States Youth Senate Program, run by The Hearst Foundation, “is geared toward future politicians and people who want to go into civics,” Murphy said. Despite all her obvious qualifications, the application process was rigorous and competitive. Murphy was required to write not one, but four different essays in hopes of advancing to the next round and then an interview.

Eventually she was chosen, along with Middletown High School senior Landon Resendes, by Rhode Island’s commissioner of education to participate in this year’s program.

The program includes a $10,000 scholarship and a fully paid week-long trip (March 1-8) to D.C., where delegates will connect and meet with several important members of the media and political sphere in Washington, including (possibly) President Donald Trump, a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, several cabinet members, and Rhode Island senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse. 

Besides meeting with political bigwigs, she’ll be participating in panel discussions and workshops with political insiders. When she has a meal, she’ll be talking with journalisms who cover politics, and even when she does the more touristy stuff like visit the Lincoln Memorial, a member of the military will be there to give delegates a special presentation. 

Project Close Up

Murphy also got the “insider’s tour” when she joined other Project Close Up members, led by PHS teacher Joe Cassady, for their trip to D.C. from Jan. 16-23. Unfortunately, the cold weather was so severe the presidential inauguration was moved indoors, so students weren’t able to witness it firsthand as they had hoped. 

“It was kind of a bummer, but a good amount of stuff was still open,” Murphy said.

The trip’s highlight, she said, was spending three hours at the U.S. Supreme Court, watching two different cases in which justices peppered opposing lawyers with rapid-fire questions. The first case was Food and Drug Administration v. R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., during which the justices appeared skeptical of the federal agency’s effort to block a North Carolina-based company from challenging the denial of its application to market e-cigarettes.

The second case, McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates, Inc. vs. McKesson Corporation, et al., invoked the 1946 Hobbs Act and was a doozy, according to The National Law Review, which wrote about the arguments.

“Well the oral argument in McKesson was yesterday and it was a real wild one. The justices and the counsel were talking over each other so much the Chief Justice had to step in at times,” Eric J. Troutman wrote for the publication.

Murphy said the courtroom space is not that large, and there are only about 60 seats for visitors. She recalled a conversation she had previously with Sen. Whitehouse, an attorney who has argued before the Supreme Court. 

“He said, ‘All I remember is when you stand there, you’re so close that all you can see in your peripheral vision are the nine judges.’”

House page

Murphy is also into state politics, which piqued her interest after she began participating in the Student Civic Liaison Program run out of  Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore’s office. Two to three students from each school in the state participate in the spring and they stay in the Providence Marriott. On “Judiciary Day,” she visited the R.I. Superior and Supreme courts, and also met with every elected official in the executive branch.

Murphy has also worked as a page in the R.I. House of Representatives since she was a sophomore. While her tasks aren’t glamorous — she collects and distributes new bills, makes copies, fetches Diet Cokes, etc. — she loves witnessing firsthand how the sausage is made inside the General Assembly.

“What I kind of like is hearing how the debates happen,” she said. “When you get those controversial bills, you hear the debates in the background and then you see how they come to the floor,” Murphy said.

The debates can rage on to 1 a.m. or later. She doesn’t mind, even though it’s a school night. “It can be long, but those are the best ones. That’s when you hear the most controversial bills,” she said.

Spoken like a true lover of politics.