By Janie Robbins
As the Senate works their way through the bill process, Senator Corey Shirey can be seen casually leaning against a desk in his American flag bowtie. He saunters through the chamber, caucusing with his fellow senators on a bill setting a higher minimum wage based on age.
Senator Shirey graduated from Weatherford High School in Weatherford, Oklahoma. He spent his freshman year of college at the University of Central Oklahoma before moving to Alva, Oklahoma to attend his second choice school, Northwestern Oklahoma State University. He decided to make the switch after the tuition rate at UCO was raised by five percent.
This session is his third, his first as a NWOSU delegate. In high school, Shirey participated in the Youth and Government program. Youth and Government is very similar to the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature. It is ran through the YMCA of Oklahoma. There are four branches: executive, judicial, legislative, and the press. The executive branch is headed by the Governor and the cabinet of the Governor, who discuss the issues throughout the state. The legislative side also includes a lobbyist core. The Governor and the cabinet also spend time lobbying for pieces of legislation that go through the legislative branch. The judicial branch has two parts: a moot court and a mock trial competition. The Moot Court competition is held under the chief justices where the Mock Trail is under seven trail court judges. The press core consists of a print media and a broadcast media. The print media release a newspaper for everyday of their state conference. The broadcast media is in charge of the Facebook page as well as Twitter and Instagram. At the end of the conference, they also make an overview video with the major highlights of the conference.
While in Youth and Government, Shirey was an attorney during his freshman and sophomore year. He ran to be the presiding judge his sophomore year and won, meaning he was the head of the trail court. He served two terms in this position during his junior and senior year. Now, as a sophomore in college, he is the trail court coordinator.
Shirey worked closely with Representative Malik Miller while in Youth and Government. The two have known each other for five years. Miller was both an attorney and a judge alongside Shirey.
“He ran things in a way that was both assertive and playful,” Miller said. “I always enjoyed working with him.”
When Shirey came to college, he began to hear about the O.I.L. program. He was immediately interested and decided to give it shot. Although he was a very active in the judicial branch in Youth and Government, he has not yet had the opportunity to participate in the O.I.L. Moot Court competition, but he says he plans to during the up and coming spring session.
Throughout his O.I.L career, Shirey has always been a senator.
“Doing judicial all of my high school career, I wanted to try to get my hand in something new,” Shirey told me in an interview. “So I said ‘you know what, I’m going to try the Senate out. When I started O.I.L with UCO, there were four of us. Three wanted to go to the House, and they tried to drag me to the House with them. But, I told them that I wanted to try something new by myself. So, I went to the Senate and I’ve been the only delegate from my delegation in the Senate ever since.”
“Shirey makes his voice heard,” Senator Zachary Wilroy said. “He doesn’t really participate in debate, but he makes necessary motions when they are needed.”
“I love the senate. It’s a lot smaller, more like a family,” Shirey said. “You get to know people on a more personal level there, contrary to the House where, yeah, you might get to know like two or three people on a close level, but in the Senate it’s so much smaller and personal that you get to know pretty much all the other senators on that level.”
After college, Senator Shirey plans to become an elected official in the state of Oklahoma.
“My Goal in life, what I feel that God put me on this Earth to do, is to help make people’s lives better.”
Shirey feels that the best way for him to do that is by achieving this goal of being elected into office. He believes that the responsibilities of the state should not burden the people. The responsibility should fall on to the local government. In order to prepare himself for this goal, he is not only active in O.I.L., but he has also helped on several campaigns, including Joe Dorman’s campaign.
“If he were elected into office, I would definitely feel safe,” Representative Jessie Hickey said. “We have a lot of similar views and I know that he would do what is best for the people.”