As a Standing With You Fellow in Students for Life of America’s National Leaders Collective, I have developed leadership skills and a determination to protect preborn babies that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

My name is Lily Redburn, and I am a senior at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. I became involved in the pro-life movement during my freshman year of college. I assumed that because I attended a university in a conservative state, many of my peers would agree with my pro-life beliefs.

However, I soon realized that many students were completely unaware of resources available to them should they become pregnant and felt that abortion was their only option, even in a state that had banned abortion. Later in the year, a club on campus was handing out free Plan B pills and QR codes that directed students to obtain chemical abortions via the mail! My university desperately needed a voice for the voiceless, so my husband and I founded Arkansas State University Students for Life and began tabling and hosting tours to speak truth and love to our campus community.

This past year alone, our group hosted an apologetics training and debate, attended a fundraising gala for our local Pregnancy Center where over $60,000 was raised, participated in a 5k fundraiser for King’s Ranch Ministries (a center for childhood trauma recovery), and had four tabling events! We hosted the “All Human Life is Valuable” tour twice in the fall and the “Abortion is Human Sacrifice” tour in the spring. In total, we had 275 conversations and changed 23 minds.

As for my Fellowship, I had two major goals: host a pregnancy resource item drive and get pregnancy resources put onto my school website. I had never hosted a drive before and did not even know where to begin! After brainstorming with my fellow officers and getting in contact with Options on Main (our local Pregnancy Center), we decided to put donation boxes in two of our local churches to collect new and used maternity clothing, women’s clothing, and baby items. In total, we collected 1,046 items! This was a huge success and is something that I will encourage our new leadership team to continue in the future.

Getting pregnancy resources listed on Arkansas State University’s website has been both a challenge and a learning opportunity for me. This is something that is very dear to my heart since I myself have been a pregnant and parenting student. My university is well equipped with resources, but many are unaware of these resources since there is not a concise and organized way to obtain them. Therefore, I have been in communication with the director of Title IX to address this issue. I have received a lack of cooperation regarding this issue despite my perseverance for the past eight months. However, I am determined to continue to work toward this goal until it is complete as I find it to be an extremely important and necessary tool for students to be encouraged to choose Life!

Throughout this Fellowship, I have grown as both a leader and a person. I have learned the importance of organization and teamwork. I have learned to relinquish control and empower others to help me achieve my goals! I am very proud of my club and my fellow members’ activism this past year. As I am graduating this year, I plan to continue my pro-life activism by working with my local Pregnancy Center and to raise my family to have pro-life Christian values.