Colorado Mountain College students are interested in hearing other perspectives — and hopeful people across the political spectrum can find ways to disagree with less vitriol. 

That was the takeaway during Friday afternoon’s student meeting with state officials Gov. Jared Polis and Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs. The students, who are engaged in the college’s student-led, non-partisan Red, White, and Blue Club, talked to the politicians about current events, as well as the importance of civic engagement and open political dialogue.

“I’m tired of seeing heartbreak after heartbreak,” Minta Williams, a student engaged in the college’s club, told Polis at CMC’s Spring Valley campus southwest of Glenwood Springs. “I wish we could just take a step back on both sides.”

After the meeting, Polis said it’s wonderful to see students come together around civic engagement at a time when people are “more divided than ever before.”

“We cherish our disagreements, but to have those conversations in a way that’s constructive, rather than have it degrade into violence or to attacking people — and that’s really what Red, White and Blue is all about,” Polis said.

The club meets once per week to discuss current events and develop media literacy. They also learn about the democratic process, the voting system, and the courts, among other civic-oriented studies, according to the club’s faculty advisor Becky Musselman.

“Demystifying the political process is a key component,” Musselman, who also teaches political science at CMC, said after the discussion.

She added that the students travel to Denver about once a school year to sit in on proceedings of the Colorado Legislature. Locally, the students take politically-oriented trips up to a couple times a semester. 

“It is important for young people to see the work that we’re doing,” Velasco said after the discussion with the students, “and I think also to present that there’s an opportunity — they could also be running for office.”

Red, White, and Blue Club President Lyan Faina-Sanchez, a CMC student, said she and the club would like to see a more unified community. 

“A different person, hypothetically, might not feel the same way about immigration as I do,” Faina-Sanchez said. “It’s still important to discuss those topics, even (if) it doesn’t affect them.”

Jen Brennan, another faculty advisor, hopes that the club will inspire students to participate in the democratic process. 

“I would like students to vote,” Brennan said. “And know what they’re voting on.”