Emily Sileven, one of the one of the National Leaders Collective’s (NLC) top leaders, is a Christian Leadership fellow attending Abilene Christian University in Texas. Learn more about Sileven’s activism, in her own words, below. 

My name is Emily Sileven, and I am the Vice President of ACU for Life at Abilene Christian University. My mother was told to abort me while she was in labor and chose Life. I am pro-life because of my birth story, but I never thought about the pro-life movement until I came to college and got involved with Students for Life of America (SFLA).  

During my time in the Christian Leadership Fellowship, my group and I completed several projects.  

Our biggest successes were our efforts on campus to support pregnant and parenting students. We were able to not only re-open the mother’s room in the Bible Building but also create new ones in our Campus Center and library. We raised a record $10,400 for our Pregnant and Parenting scholarships. My group also started an on-campus babysitting organization called “Little Steps Care,” where we interview students interested in babysitting and provide up to 16 hours of free babysitting for parenting students.  

In October, myself and three other students traveled to Oklahoma to door knock with Students for Life Action. We knocked on 5,106 doors, changed 26 minds, and offered extra pamphlets to 153 people.  

Throughout this year, my group focused on our tabling efforts. We had 128 people interact with our whiteboard, had 32 conversations, gained 14 followers on our Instagram account, and recruited 6 new members (three of whom ran for officer positions). 

Overall, the Christian Leadership Fellowship has been a great experience. The books we read as part of the program taught me about delegation and my discussions with other fellows helped me to get more members actively involved in my group.  

After the fellowship, I will be interning with a post-abortive ministry called Loved Back to Wholeness as well as doing an internship with the TV series The Chosen. 

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