I will take my oath of office today and have the honor of representing Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives. My political campaign succeeded because of the help of hundreds of students. Their ambition and drive will allow them to flourish, but I am concerned about their well-being.

These students were volunteering because of a genuine passion for giving back to the community. But a few also told me that the campaign work was a release, or as one student put it “a respite from our reality.” And while these young adults may not have used terms like anxiety and depression, I gradually got the sense that their “reality” was sometimes darker than their smiles would suggest.

In the most recent California Healthy Kids Survey, 1 in 3 high school juniors reported feeling chronically sad. An astonishing 1 in 5 freshmen and juniors reported contemplating suicide. The causes of student distress vary, but 1 in 3 teens told the American Psychological Association that stress was a primary driver, and the single biggest cause teens named was school.

A large study commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente confirms that children who experience more serious and lasting stress in their youth are more likely to suffer not only anxiety and depression, but also lung, liver and heart disease as adults. While that research examined severe traumas such as abuse or neglect, psychologists and pediatricians increasingly suspect that chronic, lower-intensity stress, like that caused by constant performance pressure, could cause similar biological strain.

It has become clear that we need to do something. Vicki Abeles and Tarun Galagali have helped me put together a five-point plan:

Collect data annually on student wellness: We need to know precisely what we’re dealing with at each school. Stuart Slavin, a St. Louis University pediatrics professor, pioneered such a survey at Fremont’s Irvington High School, asking students research-backed questions on sleep, stress, anxiety and depression. The results helped guide Irvington administrators in crafting wellness programs. Data makes inaction a costly political decision for officials responsible to constituents.

Create wellness centers: Every school should have a wellness center on site, providing counseling and other services that will help equip students with tools to cultivate good mental health, such as mindfulness. Southern California’s Burbank High School is a guiding example.

Shift school start times to 8:30 a.m.: Sleep matters, especially for children and teens. Yet more than two-thirds of our country’s students get fewer hours than they need. Sleep deprivation is linked with a weaker immune system and higher levels of depression and suicide (not to mention poorer academic performance). Pushing school start times from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., as the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends, might be logistically challenging but sensible.

Remake expectations about homework: Homework seems like a given — a central and unquestioned part of a rigorous education. But in truth it is a reflex, borne out of tradition rather than research. Studies suggest that, if homework helps at all, it does so only when assigned in moderation. Today’s runaway homework demands are doing more harm than good. Schools should cap the amount of time students can be required to work after the last bell, granting them the chance for rest and exercise, and returning to families the evening hours that are rightfully theirs.

Defuse the college admissions arms race: There’s little that drives students to experience more stress than the ever-escalating contest to cram their college applications full of more advanced classes and activities than the next applicant. Yet it’s a contest that has little to do with real individual potential or learning. Schools at all levels have a responsibility to intervene. We call on public colleges and universities to cap the number of Advanced Placement classes and activities they will consider on applications.

With the same fervor that we demand our candidates value Medicare and Social Security, we need to ask our public officials to tackle the mental health epidemic afflicting our nation’s children. It is an urgent task.

Stories that describe the ways in which America’s heartland is divided from its coasts are a dime a dozen. Growing up in manufacturing towns (Jed from Youngstown, Ohio and Ro from Bucks County, Pennsylvania) and living in Silicon Valley, we’ve seen some of those differences. But having met a new generation of businesses and entrepreneurs, we’re witnessing a bridge between the two: the evolution of additive manufacturing. Combining the DNA of a manufacturing town with a digital economy, this new industry shows policymakers and business leaders how we might start to bring our country together.

On Sept. 19, 1977, Youngstown, Ohio experienced a foundational shift in its economy. Before the fateful “Black Monday,” as many still call it, steel manufacturing paid living wages for a generation of adults, carrying them into the middle class. But on that day, one of the biggest steel producers, Youngstown Sheet & Tube, shut down and laid off thousands of employees. A town that was once 170,000 would see 40,000 jobs gone in the same decade. In the last 30 years, median household income has remained flat at around $24,000, and the town has struggled to repopulate.

In 1995, with the help of seed funding provided by the federal government, the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) was established. Its mission was to focus on companies innovating in the additive manufacturing space. As opposed to traditional manufacturing, additive manufacturing relies on layer-over-layer design and leverages information technology. This new kind of manufacturing reduces costs for companies like GE that build plane parts and helps biomedical manufacturers produce more precise biomedical devices. These kinds of companies tend to heavily populate the larger Mahoning Valley Region, in which Youngstown is located.

So it is no surprise that today America Makes — the leading 3D printing institute in the nation and perhaps world — is based in Youngstown. Portfolio companies coming from YBI and America Makes have generated nearly $39 million revenue and employed 1,842 people. In 2015, YBI was recognized as the No. 1 high-impact incubation program in North America.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently 500,000 unfilled tech jobs in advanced manufacturing. A BCG report suggests that there will be an additional 900,000 in this sector due to the continual transformation of our economy. Many won’t require a traditional degree. Rather, the new jobs will require “adaptive skills,” including ones that require access to online technical information, ranging from controlling system queries to resolving issues in an automated diagnosis. “Adaptive skills?”  What better term is there for a resilient Youngstown population with a burgeoning appetite for diversification.

At a recent roundtable of venture capitalists and companies in Youngstown hosted by Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, his friend shared an interesting story. A father and his daughter were talking about the future of Youngstown. The father remarked, with an understandable cynicism, that decades of flat wages and job loss would not change overnight because of a handful of new companies. The daughter was more optimistic, saying that during her lifetime the city was steadily getting better, that the number of restaurants had jumped from a few to 17. There’s an undeniable optimism in young folks, whether in Youngstown or San Jose, who are hungry for new opportunities. The scars of deindustrialization are not fresh in their minds. These kids are hopeful about their economic future.

Let’s take steps to justify their optimism. We believe the government needs to aggressively expand our funding for public/private partnerships, and we need to double down on training a new workforce for the jobs of tomorrow. Companies and capital should reach young people in cities and small towns across America. They are ready for us.

www.roncohen4congress2018.com