A Chuckatuck teenager has been tapped by the Speaker of the House of Delegates to serve as head page for the General Assembly’s 2012 session.

Bailey Key, a 14-year-old freshman at Isle of Wight Academy, was appointed to return as head page after serving as a House page last year.

Each year, 36 students, ages 13 and 14, are chosen to serve as pages for the assembly members, and two students, a girl and a boy who served as pages the previous year, are chosen to be head pages.

Bailey said she was “super excited and a little shocked” when she found out she was chosen, and she is looking forward to reporting for her first day Jan. 8.

As head page, she said, she will mentor and lead the other pages.

“I’ll be making sure they are doing what they are supposed to,” she said. “I also do room checks. I basically make sure they aren’t doing the wrong things.”

The page program will take Bailey away from home for about nine weeks.

Although she is going to miss her family, school and friends, she said, she is excited about learning new things during the experience.

“I’m learning life lessons, like independence, and it will help me get into colleges and get jobs in the future,” she said.

She expects her role this year to be very different from the one she had last year, which required her to do tasks for the Clerk of the House and for members of the House of Delegates.

“Now, I’ll do something new everyday,” she said.

To apply for the head page position, Bailey filled out an application in September and wrote a letter about why she wanted the position.

She said her brother, Jackson Key, was her main influence in her interest in the page program last year and the head page position this year. He served as a page in 2008 and head page in 2009.

“He was always talking about how fun it was, so he influenced me to apply,” she said.

Bailey also received a letter of recommendation from Delegate Chris Jones.

In his letter, Jones gave an overview of Bailey’s achievements, which include being a straight-A student, receiving the Headmaster’s Award at her school and being named eighth-grader of the year by the Isle of Wight Ruritan Club last year.

“Her experience as a House page during the 2011 session provided her with the opportunity to participate in the process of government,” Jones wrote. “And she hopes to continue to expand her knowledge.”

Bailey’s father, Bud, said he and his wife, Crystal, were thrilled to hear about their daughter’s appointment.

“My wife and I are obviously very excited,” he said. “To see her doing things like this is great. I know she’ll have a good time.”

In addition to her schoolwork, Bailey plays softball for her school’s varsity team and for a traveling team.