Pottstown High School junior Emmanuel Wilkerson came to his government class with a couple questions for U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, who chatted with students during a recent visit to the school.
Wilkerson walked to the front of the room when the congressman arrived and gave him a firm handshake.
“I love how he’s a national politician who’s local,” said Wilkerson, a student representative on the Pottstown School Board.
Costello, a Chester County Republican who also represents parts of Berks and Montgomery counties, including Pottstown, graduated from Owen J. Roberts High School in 1995. After earning his law degree from Villanova University, Costello practiced law on High Street in Pottstown.
“It really helps students to see that you can be an average person and make it to Congress,” said Maureen Rieger, who teaches the government class at Pottstown High. “Costello being young is a bonus. The students could really relate to him.”
During the visit last week, Costello, 38, told the students that he’d heard they would get extra credit for asking him a question. He invited them to ask him anything over the next 45 minutes.
Wilkerson was one of the first to raise his hand: “How do you plan on working alongside your Democratic colleagues?” he said.
“I’m very measured when talking about policy,” Costello said. “I work on legislation with members of the other party. I make friends with them and find opportunities where there’s some similarity in how we think.”
Other students were interested in topics ranging from potential national legislation to track shootings involving police to whether Costello would respond to their tweets.
Costello said he’s not very technological, but he would make sure to tell his team what he wanted to say in a response tweet.
After class, the congressman said he was impressed by the sharp questions the students posed. He also enjoyed the fun questions about his daily life in office. He told the students he works in Washington four days a week and sleeps on a mattress he keeps in the closet of his office in the Cannon House Office Building, a five-minute walk from the Capitol.
“The best way to speak about what I do in public office is to make people feel comfortable,” Costello said. “It invites more open dialogue.”
Contact Paige Cooperstein: 610-371-5021 or pcooperstein@readingeagle.com.