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NRL News
The
Opportunity of a Lifetime It’s like college, only all of the courses are on the life issues! NRLC is extremely pleased to announce the formation of the “National Right to Life Academy,” a six-week summer program sponsored by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund to train pro-life college students. Beginning in the summer of 2007, the Academy will provide college-level courses, complete with a reading list and loads of hands-on training, to a select group of rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors in Washington, D.C. Unlike an internship, the NRL Academy will focus solely on educating students. Participants will not do office work or have other duties outside of attending classes, studying, and engaging in supervised practice of mock lobbying, speaking, and press interviews on the life issues. “For too long opportunities for in-depth study of the issues, history, and tactics of the pro-life movement have been limited,” said the program’s academic director, Burke Balch, J.D., who will also do a significant amount of teaching at the academy. “This program is designed to equip college students today to lead the pro-life movement of tomorrow.” Mr. Balch directs NRLC’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics. A number of prominent pro-life leaders will lecture at the Academy during the six-week program. This will be in addition to the regular courses, which will include such classes as “Clash of Ethics,” “Lifesaving Medical Treatment, Food, and Fluids: Ethics and Law,” and “History of Abortion, Euthanasia and the Pro-Death and Pro-Life Movements,” to name a few. Academy students will be given plentiful opportunities to practice debate techniques, lobbying, media interviews, and other “hands-on” methods of communicating and defending the pro-life message in a variety of settings, with expert critiques. In short, it is the best and most comprehensive pro-life education available until they invent a four-year pro-life college! While other organizations offer training programs in Washington, D.C., to our knowledge, this is the only program of its type that offers a program of in-depth courses solely on the life issues. What kind of student should apply? Students who attend the Academy should be dedicated and committed pro-lifers who have completed at least one year of college. Students who are 19 years of age or older and have not yet attended college would also be eligible. The NRL Academy will have a full-time program director, Megan McCrum, who will be on site with the students and available to assist with problem solving, as well as to oversee the program. But supervision will be appropriate for a college setting and will not provide adequate supervision for younger teens. If you are or know of a pro-life college student who might be interested in attending this ground-breaking program, check out www.nrlc.org for more information including tuition costs, a full course description, and local fundraising ideas, or contact the program coordinator (see below). The National Right to Life Academy is the opportunity of a lifetime for pro-life college students who are eager dramatically to increase their pro-life effectiveness. Stay tuned for further information on this exciting new project from National Right to Life! In addition to her duties at Wisconsin Right to Life, Joleigh Little serves as program coordinator for the National Right to Life Academy. For more information on the NRL Academy, please contact her at jlittle@wrtl.org or call (715) 378-4302. |