Meet Tyler Shasteen!
Meet Tyler Shasteen! Tyler has joined our team as one of our two Family Foundation Action interns. We are excited to have him!
Tyler was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. His family now lives in Carterville, Illinois, which is a small town located in Southern Illinois. He attends the University of Chicago where he is a double major in Economics and Law, Letters & Society (pre-law). Tyler chose these majors because he comes from a multi-ethnic family of eleven with four of his siblings having been adopted through the foster care system. His interest in the overlap of family law and child welfare developed through his experience watching it play out in his family and is a pivotal reason he’s studying economics and law.
Tyler is involved in a multitude of organizations on campus. He is the Co-Founder and Vice President of Turning Point USA’s University of Chicago Chapter; the treasurer of the College Republicans at UChicago; a Staff Writer for the Chicago Thinker, a conservative-libertarian newspaper that defends the truth of voices on campus; and a member of the Leadership Institute’s Christian Leaders Program, which seeks to train and equip Christian leaders within the conservative movement. He is the President of the Academic Sanity Consortium that helped put together the University of Chicago’s symposium titled Academia's COVID Failures in May 2023.
When Tyler is not studying for an economics exam or leading a symposium on campus, his hobbies are sports, politics, and spending time with family. His favorite sports team is the St. Louis Cardinals baseball, and his favorite activity is to spend some quality time with his big family.
Tyler’s passion for the political scene began after being disturbed by the biased media coverage during the 2020 pandemic and BLM riots. He jumped into his first campaign in 2022, igniting his passion for politics and the potential to make a difference in shaping the future.
His favorite campaign memory stems from working as a Poll Watcher for a local Chicago campaign, where he served as a prime point person for voter outreach at the University of Chicago, engaging with students and other members of the community to encourage them to get out and vote. Despite their candidate not getting the anticipated results on election night, the watch party was enjoyable due to the sense of unity. These experiences helped deepen his passion for campaigning and making a meaningful impact in local politics. Some of Tyler’s most inspirational leaders are Booker T. Washington, President Ronald Reagan, and President Donald Trump.
Tyler was raised in a Christian home and his faith came at a young age. God has appeared in Tyler’s life time and time again. Whether it be performing a miracle to save his father and him when they ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere in Michigan or rescuing his friends and him when they were stranded in downtown DC at 1 am, God has always been there when he needed Him most. He is a good, good Father.
Tyler’s career goals involve attending law school after he graduates from the University of Chicago, with hopes of specializing in family law. He wants to make a difference by bringing to light a positive change in advocating for individuals and families who have been affected by the child welfare system. In the long term, Tyler wants to get involved in local politics to work towards policies that promote justice and positive change in government. We are glad that he is part of our team this summer!