I asked Mayor Mike Johnston: “What can Denver’s citizens do to serve and help the city, and each other?” Thoughts of President Kennedy’s exhortation: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” were on my mind.

Dr. Rosanne Fulton, director of the University of Northern Colorado’s Center for Urban Education, had invited our group to attend Johnston’s visit to the Center. The three of us have an abiding interest in mathematics pedagogy. With Dr. Fulton, we’ve met local teachers as we try to crack the K-12 minority students’ STEM education conundrum. Teachers have impressed upon us the Sisyphean difficulty of pushing the academic rock up the hill. They insist that everyone must buy into the idea that K-12 STEM education is this nation’s salvation.

Humorously, the mayor talked about his keen interest in STEM education during his tenure as a school principal. His higher grade students, he said, mentored their lower grades colleagues — students learning as they taught. It’s a simple Socratic idea: we best learn in others’ presence and by helping each other. This is true, too, for the greater society’s coexistence.

He touched on the training of tomorrow’s teachers — the Center’s main function. Many students here are older adults who for one reason or another didn’t finish their studies at an earlier age; they are first-generation minority college attendees, and parents. CEU is giving students a second chance. Parenthetically, in their wisdom, good institutions encourage adults to complete their interrupted education, learn new skills or disciplines, and to love living a life of knowledge.

Mayor Johnston came across as a decent, reliable politician; a people’s servant. He wanted us to know how the “unsheltered people issue” is being solved. Like other U.S. cities, Denver is taking a leaf out of Houston’s playbook on how to solve the ever growing U.S. homelessness crisis.

Elected officials are to me like conductors of an orchestra and music from a hundred instruments depends on musicians’ skill — willingness to work together and to follow the conductor’s baton. This was the basis of my question to Mayor Johnston, even as I thought of my fellow citizens — garrulous, loud grumblers and chronic complainers about everything. If we regarded the government as a partner in our joint endeavors, a great deal could be accomplished, I thought.

Reality is, we sit atop our hill throwing stones at those toiling down in the plains, waiting for the products of their sweat and labor to be delivered to us. I wondered if Mayor Johnston would ask me to elaborate on my question. If there was more time, he might have. This time, he didn’t.

Because first on his list is care of the unsheltered, he discussed how his administration is tackling that. To include Denver’s citizens, invitation to clean rooms and prepare sites to welcome new unhoused residents went out.

My wish is for Denver’s and other Colorado cities’ mayors to create an atmosphere of volunteerism. I say this knowing that great reservoirs of knowledge and ability reside among many retired people and young folks, willing to offer a great deal of themselves. A good example was President Jimmy Carter who in his life’s sunset served Habitat for Humanity with enthusiasm and apparent joy.

In 1961 President Kennedy established the Peace Corps for young American volunteers to go to foreign lands to help with development efforts. Establishing organizations to serve our own here would be met with resounding success. We could, I think, help K-12 students with their homework: reading, writing and mathematics, understanding that children without adult supervision are easily led astray — into violence and other insalubrious behaviors. Environmental efforts, health care matters, neighborhood care are issues that a volunteer cadre can tackle. Mayors’ offices would serve as repositories for ideas on the how, where and who to solve sundry problems.

Still, I am grateful I met Mayor Johnston. I believe Denver’s administration has an erudite, sensitive, and great leader; one who will encourage Denverites to do more for each other. Meeting future teachers was very gratifying. That UNC is helping to train them in how to better teach K-12 mathematics is doubly encouraging.

Institutions distinguish themselves by their leaders’ imagination. Each time my math colleagues and I visit CUE we’re awed by what Dr. Fulton and her staff accomplish. But I’m also puzzled as to why all Colorado’s universities don’t work harder to help more students complete their education requirements, and become better informed citizens.

Pius Kamau, M.D., a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships (AAHEP); co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group, and an activist for minority students’ STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, a Huffington Post blogger, a past columnist for Denver dailies, and is featured on the podcast, “Never Again.”