As the 2024-2025 academic year comes to a close, Students for Life of America (SFLA) will be awarding several outstanding Students for Life groups with Best New Group, Best High School Group, Best College Group, and Best Standing With You (SWY) Group distinctions – and you get to help us choose which groups deserve these awards! Choose Life at Pitt (CLAP) has been nominated for the best Standing With You Group of the Year Award. 

The winning group from each category, selected by the Pro-Life Generation (PLG), will receive a certificate, a shoutout on our national social media accounts, and a $300 donation to help expand the group’s efforts further next school year. 

About the Group 

CLAP was established in 2006 and has over 30 active members. This year, the group hosted over 60 events on campus, including SFLA President Kristan Hawkins during her Spring Tour, a baby shower for a young mom who chose Life, and various speaker events, including Feminists for Life and Ian Haworth.   

They have been nominated for the best Standing With You Group of the Year for hosting a baby shower for a young mom that raised over $1,000 during the 2024-2025 academic year!  They have also hosted 40 outreach days where multiple events centered on supporting mothers. Their efforts included putting together blessing bags and letters of encouragement that they then delivered to two of their local Pregnancy Help Centers (PHCs), pregnant moms, and NICU moms in the hospital.  

In addition, they hosted their local PHC on campus several times throughout this school year, allowing for public education about what SWY does. Lastly, they hosted a bake sale in addition to their baby shower that raised money for several local PHCs. 

Groups nominated for the Standing With You Group of the Year award have gone beyond the Supportive Services pillar of pro-life activism. These student groups strive to serve women and families by advocating for campus policy changes that support pregnant and parenting students and create a culture of Life.   

Read about their accomplishments below to decide if they will receive your vote. 

Choose Life at Pitt’s Top Accomplishments in the 2024-2025 Academic Year 

Baby Shower for a Young Mom 

One of Choose Life at Pitt’s supportive service projects was raising money and hosting a baby shower for a local teen mom. One of the group’s officers worked with a young 18-year-old mom with an unplanned pregnancy. The mom, “T,” discussed how she planned to choose Life for her baby even though she was unsure if her boyfriend and mother would support her. CLAP created a baby registry, and 22 items were bought for this young mom. After CLAP’s baby shower for her in February of 2022, “T” was very grateful and felt supported.   

Blessing Bags and Letters 

CLAP made Blessing Bags for moms at their local PHCs. Group members gathered, shopped for, and assembled 20 bags worth $500 with handwritten notes, Bible verses, gift cards, face masks, deodorant, lotion, candy, and other goodies. The bags reminded the women in unplanned pregnancies to remember to care for themselves and of God’s love for them. In addition to delivering the bags to Birthright Pittsburgh and Oakland Women’s Choice Network, group members wrote loving notes and inspirational messages for the local women’s hospital to show love and support to NICU parents and hospitalized pregnant women.    

On-Campus Activism 

 While tabling with Women’s Choice Network, a local PHC, the group distributed 200 little bags with the PHC’s information and other goodies to students on campus. This PHC is less than a 10-minute walk from campus and aims to support students with free pregnancy tests, STD testing, and life-affirming care.   

Unfortunately, the campus does not advertise the local PHC as they do for Planned Parenthood, so sharing the message of local non-violent pregnancy centers on campus and spreading the news was a tremendous accomplishment for the group.  

While hosting SFLA’s “Planned Parenthood Go Fund Yourself” tour with their Regional Coordinator, they spread the pro-life, pro-woman message on campus. One young woman they talked to was surprised to hear about the lack of care Planned Parenthood provided, especially in dangerous situations. She then changed her mind and stated that she appreciated the work organizations such as the local PHC and Standing With You (SWY) do when it comes to showing women love and advocating for them.  

Finally, while tabling with SWY, a young woman approached their table and claimed the pro-life movement didn’t care for women or babies after they were born. After a discussion on the different resources the pro-life movement has for women and their babies, she realized that the pro-life movement advocates for every human life and is a voice for the voiceless. 

COMING SOON IN 2025-2026… 

Choose Life at Pitt hopes to continue their leadership on campus by helping the women in Pittsburgh see that life is precious and beautiful. They hope to shift Pittsburgh from being more of a culture of death into a culture of life by continuing to pray outside of abortion facilities and participating in sidewalk advocacy.  

They also plan to improve the resources for pregnant and parenting students at the University of Pittsburgh by hosting a pregnancy resource forum with Feminists for Life. Additionally, Choose Life at Pitt will work with Standing With You to create a guide for students on campus and advertise it through flyering.  

Choose Life at Pitt is excited to continue being a strong advocate for pregnant and parenting students on campus, aiming to connect women in the community to the network of at least 20 locations for supportive services in the greater Pittsburgh area. Next year, they hope to host a baby item drive, tackle the unethical fetal experimentation happening on campus, host the SFLA fall tour, bring more students to the National Pro-Life March and National Pro-Life Summit, and make Pitt a more positive place for pregnant and parenting students by hosting a pregnancy resource forum and incorporating pro-family aspects into the Pitt Pantry.   

Click HERE for more information about Standing With You.