In 2007 National Right to Life launched a new program for college students, the National Right to Life Academy. Different from a traditional internship, the Academy provides college student leaders with a comprehensive and academically challenging course on the life issues. Lasting for five weeks, the Academy meets at NRLC’s D.C. office, and includes both lecture-based courses as well as an integral component called “practicum.” During these daily oral exercises, students are challenged to confidently articulate and defend the pro-life position to NRL staff who role-play the opposition’s perspective. Commenting on her experience at the Academy, one student explained, “the practicums were most valuable–getting to actually sit down and use the information we were given helped to solidify it so I feel like I could use it in a real situation.”

Academy alumni from the five previous graduating classes gathered at the 2012 National Right to Life Convention in Washington, D.C., for a reception and reunion. They are working to create a culture of life in diverse ways, some working professionally for the movement as employees of NRLC state affiliates and other pro-life groups, others working through their chosen fields of education, law, medicine, and ministry. One alumna summed it up this way: “after the Academy I can’t escape the feeling that I am now obligated to do all that I can for protecting the dignity of life–because now I know what to do. I am so grateful for this knowledge and the skills I have been given.”