Student Experience

2023 UVA Graduate Sets Sights on International Law

Jaden Evans, a 2023 University of Virginia alumnus, aims to merge law and international relations and will use a newly awarded Knight-Hennessey Scholarship to study law at Stanford University to help him.

Evans, who graduated from UVA with degrees from the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics’ distinguished majors program and in media studies, is currently finishing a year in Bologna, Italy, working toward a Master of Arts in international relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

“As a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, I will continue my graduate studies in the juris doctorate program at the Stanford Law School,” Evans said. “By pursuing a joint degree program, I am seeking to develop a focused expertise in international public law. In the big picture, my aspiration is to enhance international cooperation on pressing global issues, such as climate change and technological innovation.”

Created by Nike co-founder Philip Knight and John L. Hennessy, the 10th president of Stanford University, the scholarship pays for up to three years of graduate study at Stanford, including tuition, a living stipend and travel/relocation expenses. Evans is UVA’s eighth Knight-Hennessey scholar.

A Telluride, Colorado, resident, Evans is looking forward to being a part of the Knight-Hennessey network.

“The breadth of diversity in background, research and aspirations in Knight-Hennessy is remarkable,” Evans said. “Knight-Hennessy Scholars are engaged in research on everything from cancer biology to organizational design to artificial intelligence. I am most excited to engage with scholars from academic programs that are programmatically distinct but practically connected to pressing contemporary legal issues.”

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Robert Fatton Jr., the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Emeritus Professor of Politics, called Evans a “truly exceptional student.”

“He was an outstanding student who was thoroughly dedicated to his work,” Fatton said. “I have no doubt that he was one of the very best students I had the pleasure to teach in my more than 40 years at the University of Virginia. As a person, Jaden is friendly, adaptable and flexible, and he has a wonderful sense of humor. He is indeed an outstanding young man gifted of a great intellect and an unsurpassed motivation.”

Evans worked as a presidential fellow at UVA, researching higher education policy. His senior thesis, which Fatton oversaw, received the Emmerich-Wright Prize for Best Politics Thesis.

Evans also worked on the Project on Democracy and Capitalism with Scott Miller, an assistant professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs and the Darden School of Business.

“Jaden’s quiet, considered intellect manifests in his remarkable insights, as opposed to the rapid provision of facts and figures demonstrated by many elite students,” Miller said. “Jaden excels at the inductive process of deriving large-scale insights through his remarkable ability to see patterns in seemingly unconnected bits of information. In short, I have never seen a student of Jaden’s age with his ability to ‘see the forest for the trees.’”

Evans was a 2022 Denmark Fellow at Humanity in Action, a Jefferson Scholar, an Echols Scholar and a member of the Raven Society.