Jackson Lewis, one of the National Leaders Collective’s (NLC) leaders of the month, is a Students for Life of America (SFLA) William Wilberforce Fellow attending Middle Tennessee State University in Tennessee. Learn more about Lewis’s activism below. 

Back in high school, I suffered from severe anxiety and depression. I constantly second-thought my life’s value and purpose. For a whole year, I prayed every night to be lifted out of the darkness that had swallowed me. Thankfully, one day, the Holy Spirit moved me to open up to my parents and address the problem. My mental health eventually improved, and my relationship with God and my parents has grown ever since.

From that experience, I wanted to be fruitful in my walk with Christ. I wanted to spread the word about how there is a God who loves us, values us, and has a plan for every life. One day at church, my local Pregnancy Help Center (PHC) came and talked about abortion and their strategies to counteract it. The talk moved me to learn how the value of human life is under attack by the abortion industry. I knew I had to do something about it. 

I have learned that leaders need to be bold, patient, and resilient. During my freshman year in college, the SFLA group at my school had recently dissolved. I wanted to revive it and keep the fight for life going on my campus. For seven semesters, I worked tirelessly on membership growth. Through hard work, perseverance, and trying new strategies, my group finally started group meetings. I’m so thankful for collaborating with a local PHC to bring their mobile unit to campus, collaborating with ministries, and guiding the recently acquired members into action.  

I learned a tremendous amount as a leader by examining each task from multiple angles. Asking questions such as “Who can help me?” “Where do I look for new members?” and “How can I best delegate tasks?” were essential to keeping my focus on the end objective: leaving behind a functioning and successful SFLA group when I graduate.

I joined the Wilberforce Fellowship to connect with other pro-life leaders. Our meetings are a great source for not just group ideas but also hope and motivation to combat the abortion industry. Many other groups across the country face similar obstacles, and connecting with them through national pro-life events creates a sense of community in our journey to achieve pre-born rights.

My group’s biggest achievement has to be that after seven semesters of trying to revive the group, we finally had our first club meeting with six members! Also, over the 2024 fall semester, we led an outreach campaign for our PHC, Portico. We tabled on our campus with some of their staff and reached 143 students, shared Portico’s resources and how someone can get the help they may need just down the street, and lobbied at our state’s capital in Nashville, Tennessee, on pro-life lobbying day. We handed out literature to over 100 members of the state legislature!

The National Leaders Collective (NLC) has served as a reminder that regardless of how hard our fight can be, other passionate men and women share the same mission and are working alongside me.  

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