By Janet Carden, Staff Writer
Make way for a first-generation college student and freshman class president, Ethan Shadwick. Shadwick is a Christian Studies major planning on going to law school after he graduates. Shadwick explained his journey so far of discovering his career goals and aspirations and what he hopes to accomplish in the future.
“I’m planning on changing my major to political science and communications because I love to speak,” Shadwick said. “I want to be a lawyer. I love logic and wit, having intelligent arguments and comparing them with somebody else’s, while coming up with stuff on the spot. I’ve been an arguer since I was a little kid, and I got into the intellectual fields of arguing when I was 12 or 13. It’s something I’ve always loved and wanted to do.”
Shadwick has a passion for politics and hopes to step into that realm in some capacity in the future as well. Because of this, Shadwick found a great opportunity in running for freshman class president.
“I showed up to the [student senate interest] meeting, and I really liked it,” Shadwick explained “I prayed about it, went home that night and I sent in my application to run for president. I got my brother-in-law to record a video and take pictures, and we worked hard all night. I made a bunch of [posters] and put them everywhere. It was exciting because I love politics, and I really wanted to get involved with that here.”
Opportunities such as running for student senate, offer many benefits. Shadwick was able to attain the office position he ran for, spend quality time with his brother-in-law, and meet a lot of new people. Shadwick shared one of his favorite memories from his campaign.
“One day I went into the cafeteria, and I just talked to everybody,” Shadwick said. “I was going around introducing myself, and I met a lot of people. It was actually really good to have that first campaign in the cafeteria, because now I talked to people that I wouldn’t have talked to before, and I’m comfortable with them.”
Shadwick explained his campaign strategy. He wanted people to trust and confide in him about their issues on campus so he could share them with the student senate and administration.
“The big thing I was running on was ‘taking out the trash’,” Shadwick explained “[I don’t mean] actually going over to the dorm and taking out the trash, but I want them to make the ‘trash’ that they’re experiencing—parking concerns, academic concerns—known to me so I can help them take it out. I don’t want them to be afraid to communicate that with me.”
While he may be new, he has many goals as a freshman president and plenty of experiences to look forward to as a Ouachitonian.
