Pro-Life Students Connect with the World Wide Web
By Holly Smith, Advisor,
National College Students for Life
College students jumped on the Internet bandwagon early. Since the introduction of the Internet to the public en masse, students have used it daily to e-mail distant friends and family and to research homework assignments. For many, "surfing the web" is also an extracurricular hobby, and for many others, it is a useful tool to enhance their campus activities.
National Right to Life's web site, www.nrlc.org, has long been an invaluable resource for students writing papers or making presentations in support of the pro-life viewpoint. And many students have sought out NRLC's advice on ways to advance the right to life cause on their campuses.
Thus, it only makes sense to combine college students' almost hourly use of the web with access to information from National Right to Life. Hence National College Students for Life (NCSL), the college outreach of NRLC, is now on the web with information and resources for students and, more specifically, for "Students for Life" groups.
To visit NCSL's newly launched website, go to www.nrlc.org and click on the NCSL link in the left margin. Accessing the website from a separate domain is also in the works.
On the site, students can find information on all aspects of the abortion debate. Previous issues of The Vanguard, the e-newsletter of NCSL, are available and full of successful ideas from campus right-to-life groups. Students can download fact sheets and ads that can be reproduced to distribute on campus. They can also sign up for legislative updates and subscribe to NRL News at a reduced student rate to keep them informed.
In the weeks to come, a revised edition of the College Starter Manual will also be available to students who visit the web site. And as they are developed, more programs and ideas will constantly be added to the web site to make sure it reflects the creativity and energy of the students who make up the college right-to-life movement.
NCSL: What It Is, What It Is For
NCSL is dedicated to educating our college communities about the value of human life, instilling respect for the individual lives of all people, and creating a society that will offer life-affirming solutions to the tragedies of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. Pro-life students often provide the only positive voice a pregnant woman hears on a college campus. That encouraging voice tells her she doesn't have to abort her child, that there are alternatives.
Pro-life students must be equipped to respectfully confront their classmates and professors when pro-abortion rhetoric would otherwise go unchallenged. Pro-life students are also the "face" of the pro-life movement on their campuses, challenging stereotypes and presenting themselves as resources to their friends and classmates.
NCSL's purpose is to help pro-life student groups and individual students inform their peers on the truth regarding the abortion debate. NCSL primarily operates as a clearinghouse of information and educational materials, as a think tank to advise college right-to-life groups, and as a channel for campus groups to connect and share information and experiences. We provide the most up-to-date and expert information to keep them current with the latest in education and federal legislation.
For those students that have already or would like to organize a Students for Life group to educate their own campus with the help and support of like-minded students, we try to help every step of the way. The web site aims to make that more student-friendly by meeting the students in their own comfort zone - - the Internet.
The new web page will be a valuable resource for pro-life college students as an educational tool and as an opportunity to connect with other campus groups. Please check it out and be sure to e-mail any questions, comments, or ideas of your own to students@nrlc.org.