By Megan McCrum
National Right to Life Committee
Academy Program Director
Former Academy students and instructors gather at the 2012 National Right to Life Convention.
Last week’s 2012 National Right to Life Convention was also the occasion of a reunion for the five graduating classes of the National Right to Life Academy.
Launched in 2007, 39 college student leaders have graduated from this program. Academy alumni across the country are building up the pro-life movement either by working directly for pro-life organizations (including many state affiliate offices of National Right to Life) or through their chosen professional field, such as social work, nursing, and law.
On Saturday afternoon of NRLCs’ “We the People Defending Life” convention, nearly a third of the Academy’s alumni gathered together for a luncheon reunion, along with the current 2012 Academy class and their instructors from the NRLC staff. NRLC President Carol Tobias spoke very personally about the great struggle that the students have been called to in the pro-life movement, and urged them to continue to use their youthful energy in defense of life.
At the closing of the reunion the alumni, current students, and NRLC staff recalled the inspiring charge given by the late Father Richard John Neuhaus at the 2008 National Right to Life Convention:
“Whether, in this great contest between the culture of life and culture of death, we were recruited many years ago or whether we were recruited only yesterday, we have been recruited for the duration…And, in this the greatest human rights struggle of our time and all times, we shall overcome.”
The Academy reunion, along with the rest of the convention, was a rejuvenating reminder that we have many, many good people on our side!