By Journalist Alexandria Willard (OSU)
Evan Shaw (ALU), also known as the acting Governor for Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature is someone for lower stars to look up to, higher stars to respect. Through Shaw’s past 6 years in OIL, he has obtained 14 stars, as well as valuable takeaways that he can carry into the legal realm far after graduation. Shaw got started in OIL because his older sister started the Oklahoma Baptist (OBU) delegation and every thanksgiving she would come home and tell him all about it and everything she did that week.
Shaw’s favorite part of OIL is “working with my team… I am very blessed to have such a tremendous team.” He applauded their hard work when mentioning the immense amounts of work that goes into pre-session. He said, “They all had to do a ton of work over the summer and leading up to session…It is really rewarding to see all that preparation pay off at session and see it going as smoothly as it is. Seeing all the people that have worked so hard and seeing their work rewarded.”
For those who look up to Shaw, and dream one day being in the role he is in today, he said the biggest thing he did in order to become Governor was institution knowledge. Shaw said, “Institutional knowledge is the biggest thing. This is my 14th star session. I have been here since fall of 2018, and I have just been here a long time and I took the time to understand everything. I was really involved in sensate.” Humbly, he commented, “I never expected to be Governor, I never expected to be Pres Pro…but I stayed in the senate and enjoyed being on the floor, discussing, caucusing, and at the conclusion of that, I decided to run for Pres Pro and all my senate stuff prepared me for Pres Pro and which is working to make session happen, and so everything combined together makes you prepared for the next step.”
Shaw told us, the reason why he was best suitable for Governor was, “Coming back from COVID, the organization needed someone who had experience with the organization pre-covid and someone who could set us back on the path of who we could be and what we were and remember those days. I stuck around to make sure the organization is okay, and people got the same experience as I did.”
When asked about his favorite bill so far, he did not have one, simply because he has been so busy, he has not had the chance to hear one. However, Shaw did comment on the bills that have been passed so far, “I have only had two (2) bills on my desk, Minton’s from OSU about the telephone and email communication regarding voting being one of them.”
Will the Governor ever veto a bill? He said, “I know I am not going to agree with everyone here, and I will not let my own political views affect who I say yes and no to. We are all coming from an area where we are trying to help the state and make the state better, and so if they had done that in their bill and both chambers heard it, amended it, and decided it, make the state better I am going to do it…unless it is clearly to the detriment to Oklahoma…or clearly unconstitutional.”
What keeps Shaw from coming back? “It’s the people that I met that made the difference. It is like a family here.”
When we asked Shaw what he wanted to do after OIL and law school he responded with, “I have had the same dream since 4th grade. I hjave never waivered from that. When I finish from U law I want to start at the District Attorney’s office as an Assistant District Attorney and work there to get experience and continue on. Some day, far into the future, I would love to become a judge. Nothing prepared me for law school as much as OIL. You see all these bills and you have to ask questions and debnagte them and you hear what others are saying to where you can notice and look for pitfalls.”