By Dave Andrusko

Editor's note. Please send your much-appreciated comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.

How does the cliche go? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger? Imagine you are one of NRLC's Academy students and your assignment is to take on the senior staff of National Right to Life (as well as an experienced state lobbyist) in a series of mock debates--with the wily veterans arguing the anti-life position!

"NRLC staff know the ins-and-outs of the most effective anti-life arguments because they've seen it all in their own work promoting pro-life legislation across the country" said Megan McCrum, the Academy Program Director. "But the students held their own, bringing together everything they've learned over the summer."

Academy students, NRLC interns, and NRLC law clerks on the steps of the Capitol yesterday with Pro-Life Congressman Chris Smith.

Preparing these young men and women to go up against the best of the best is a big part of what the Academy is all about. For those who don't know, the Academy is a rigorous six-week-long course which brings college students to Washington, DC. This year there were ten students, six women and four men, from states as far-flung as California and nearby as Virginia.

The range of topics is enormous, everything from assisted suicide and denial of lifesaving medical treatment, to the rationing of healthcare, to, of course, abortion. The core of this schedule, the piece that ties it all together, is the daily "practicum" session--a simulation exercise where students must articulate the information they learned about a topic in a persuasive and natural way.

The amount of information the students must master combined with the rigor of the curriculum makes it the equivalent of any collegiate course load. McCrum said each student leaves with four two-inch binders--"their own mobile pro-life libraries."

The debates concluded this year's Academy session. They followed on the heels of one of the most exciting experiences of the summer which they shared with NRLC's interns and law clerks: a meeting with Congressional Pro-Life Caucus Co-Chair Chris Smith (R-NJ). Smith, now in his fifteenth term in the House, is "one of us," having begun his career as executive director of New Jersey's right to life organization.

"Yesterday Chris took them on the House floor, talked to them, had them back to his office for coffee and donuts," McCrum said. "His staff may have been worried about keeping him on schedule, but Chris was eager to keep talking to the students about how pro-life is the fundamental human rights issue and answering their questions."

She smiled and added, "They just didn't want him to stop." After their time together with Chris, his staff took them on a tour of the Capitol building.

McCrum emphasized that learning how to debate the life issues and mastering the ins and outs of the legislative process are only two of the many goals established for Academy students.

"We want each of them to be leaders--first on their college campuses, then in their respective states and regions," she said.

"They will be pro-life missionaries, if you will, passing on all they have learned to the grassroots."