Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in The Pirateer

A personal insight into a politician. Students, staff, and members of the Englewood School Board met at Englewood High School and had the opportunity to talk to our U.S. Representative. Friday, January 20th, Jason Crow visited the high school,  “I thought it was a really cool experience and personally, I never thought I’d even meet anybody of that like nature. I feel like he wanted to learn more about our school and more about our district,” said Senior Sean McKee.

This was Crows’ first school visit in the newly drawn Colorado’s sixth district. With over one million people moving to Colorado in the past few years, the districts were redesigned and Englewood became part of Colorado’s sixth district, leading Jason Crow to become its representative. Superintendent Dr. Wendy Rubin was very excited that Congressman Crow is representing the sixth district now, “He is just a really, really wonderful man. He has a lot of integrity, a lot of commitment to ideals and values.”

Jason Crow told students he had quite the journey to get to where he is today. He has always had a love for serving his country, and worked minimum wage jobs growing up, including construction, until finally enlisting in the military to pay for college, “I was born and raised in a family that didn’t have a lot of money for college for me. So I actually enlisted in the National Guard originally, and that started my public service career. So as a teenager, my first time serving the country was in uniform.”

He started in the Joint Strike Force, eventually joining ROTC to become an officer. With four years of active duty, Crow earned a bronze star. After his time spent in the military, he experienced firsthand the difficulty of receiving veterans’ benefits and dedicated the next few years of his life as a lawyer to aid other veterans to get the benefits they deserved. After the 2016 election, Crow found himself unhappy with the political state of the country and decided to do something about it, “In 2017, I thought that our country was really at an inflection point, we had some real challenges facing our nation. And it required a new generation of leadership, a new style of leadership. So I decided to run for Congress. And I ran, and I won. And I have now served several terms, and I just got sworn into my third term in Congress.”

Since being elected Crow has done a lot in Congress including sitting on the Small Business, Armed Service, and Intelligence committees. Crow also spends time traveling to meet with soldiers deployed all over the world. But above all, Crow sees the importance of being in the community and enjoys spending time meeting with local businesses and schools. Dr. Rubin says she loves that he came here to Englewood High School to meet students, “And just get a little bit of a feel for our district. That means a lot to me. So I feel very honored as a whole,” believing it was such an amazing experience for everyone in the school.

During his visit, Crow took the time to go into a Government and a U.S. history class. The students got the opportunity to ask him questions and get to know him. Questions ranged from moments in his political career to what he does in his free time, “It’s pretty cool to see that he actually cares to come to visit and come talk to kids and ask questions. And really, like it’s an eye-opening person to talk to,” Beau Johnson said after Crow spent time in his government class.

After his classroom visits, Crow gave The Pirateer a chance to ask him some questions. One, what is it like dealing with a divided congress, “We have a lot of tension in America right now. There’s a lot of polarization. So people are, you know, at each other’s throats fighting a lot. So figuring out how you can lower the temperature in the room, get everyone to step back and focus more on the things that we have in common.” Including a solid education for students across Colorado and quality teachers, “I would love to get more teachers in our classrooms right now, we have a huge teacher shortage. We don’t have enough teachers to go around, but to pay our teachers more because there’s really nothing more impactful in someone’s life than in an incredible teacher.”

During his visit, he never failed to remind students that service, at the local, state or national level is important, “I believe that every American, every member of our community should do something to serve the public, whether that’s volunteering at a food bank, being a part of a nonprofit, you know, military service, or some other type of public service, that you can really do amazing things by giving back.”

Students who met the Representative hoped he left the school feeling inspired, “One thing I want him to know is that we are a strong school and despite the looks, we may have gotten in the past, I believe we’re a good school,” said Senior Sean McKee.