In the Government and AP Government classes, teacher Jon Preister tries to bring in interesting speakers to talk to the students. Last Friday, Congressman Lee Terry visited Westside to speak in Preister’s Government large group.

“He comes in every semester to talk to the [students] about Congress and what he does,” Preister said.

For the first part of the lecture, Terry talked about why he became active in politics and his journey to becoming a member of the House of Representatives. Afterwards, he answered questions from the students.

Listening to a Congressman gives the students of Government an interesting perpective on the national government and what a Congressman does each day. In 2012, only 45% of voters 18-25 years old in Nebraska voted in the election. Preister hopes that hearing a Congressman speak will motivate students to become more involved in politics.

“90% of these kids will be voting in the next election. So when they do and he is running, hopefully this gets them intrigued to look into that race and see if they are going to support him or his opponent and become more involved in the process,” Preister said.