Graduate Tax Program Names First Recipient of Public Interest-Focused “Caritas Scholarship”
In 2024, Silya Shaw ’25 LLM, deputy director of Legal Aid of Western Missouri, was selected as the first recipient of the Villanova University Graduate Tax Program’s Caritas Scholarship. Established to benefit tax professionals working with underserved populations in the public interest sector, the scholarship provides access to the Master of Laws in Taxation (LLM) at a more affordable rate.
“Villanova is committed to teaching and training individuals who service communities in need,” said Stephen Olsen, faculty director of the Graduate Tax Program and associate professor of practice. “We are thrilled to offer this new public interest scholarship for those professionals. Silya is a dedicated low-income taxpayer clinic lawyer whose career is focused on public interest work. She is so deserving of this scholarship.”
Shaw has always been drawn to public interest work. Growing up in Independence, MO, outside Kansas City, her stepfather was a dentist who served low-income patients and was more focused on helping people than making money. “He instilled a lot of humanity into us as kids,” said Shaw. “Our focus as a family was on helping everyday people. That was my greatest influence.”
Shaw went on to earn a BA in political science and government from Park University, an MA in international relations and affairs from American University and a JD from the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC). In law school, she worked as a student attorney in UMKC’s Low Income Tax Clinic, assisting clients with federal tax controversies. “The clinic drew me into tax,” said Shaw. “It was my first time doing practical legal work and working with real people. After that, I never turned back.”
After earning her JD, UMKC hired Shaw as a full-time attorney in their tax clinic, representing clients with various tax issues, including audits and collections. In 2015, Shaw joined Legal Aid of Western Missouri where she worked in their Low Income Taxpayer Clinic. “After about a year, I moved into the office’s managing attorney role where I ran the tax clinic and oversaw about 30 attorneys doing various types of legal aid work,” said Shaw. In 2021, she was promoted to deputy executive director.
Shaw always hoped to pursue an LLM, but personal and career growth took precedence for many years. “Everything came together last year to make it the right time,” said Shaw. In spring 2024, she enrolled in the Graduate Tax Program’s five-week virtual Tax Litigation Training, which offers critical insight into the litigation process and is significantly discounted for low-income taxpayer clinicians. She soon decided to continue on with the LLM.
“As long as I have been working at a low-income taxpayer clinic, I’ve known about Villanova’s LLM program,” said Shaw. “I didn’t look at any other programs. The professors are well known and are heavily involved in the low-income taxpayer community. The program best covers public service, tax procedure and other things that impact my clients every day.”
Shaw added, “The scholarship was just incredible. I would never get another opportunity to do the LLM program at a really great school, with really great professors, for this amount of money. So, I jumped on it.”
She began courses in summer 2024 and, taking one course per eight-week session, hopes to complete the degree in summer 2025. Not even halfway through the program, Shaw already believes the courses are rounding out her perspective. “It’s really interesting, for the first time in my career, to spend time with people who practice in totally different areas of tax than I do,” said Shaw. “Every class when someone speaks up, I think, ‘Wow, I really never thought of it from that perspective.’ And I hope my experience working with low-income taxpayers does the same for them.”
Shaw’s top priority is to find new ways to help her clients, and she is already using lessons learned in class to make new arguments for individual clients on actual cases at Legal Aid of Western Missouri. “I hope the LLM gives me a better policy background, and different perspectives on making systemic changes for low-income taxpayers,” said Shaw.
Shaw added, “There are some brilliant tax professionals, several of whom are in the Villanova program, who are looking for impactful cases, and I want to be one of those going forward.”
