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 Yale (CLAY) at Yale University has been nominated for the Best College 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 

CLAY was established in 2003 and now has 20 active members. This year, the group hosted more than 40 events on campus, including their annual flagship conference.   

Remarkably, this year, CLAY hosted their 12th annual, two-day pro-life conference, Vita et Veritas, which is a pro-life event welcoming pro-life experts, non-profit representatives, and nearly 100 students from universities across the Northeast to strategize the path forward for building a Culture of Life on their campuses. 

Groups are nominated for the College Group of the Year award for going above and beyond in the Five Pillars of Pro-Life Activism in the 2024-2025 academic year.  

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

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

The Bedrock of the Northeast Pro-Life Movement   

Since 2013, CLAY has hosted its annual two-day Vita et Veritas Conference, a flagship event drawing pro-life students from across the region, and this year marked a significant milestone as CLAY expanded its reach to include attendees from universities throughout the Northeast. The conference allows students to hear from leading voices in the pro-life movement, build lasting connections with peers from other campuses, and collaborate on strategies to advance the cause with courage and clarity. Each year features a unique theme and a distinguished speaker lineup—past guests have included Kristan Hawkins, Abby Johnson, Karen Gaffney, Emily Berning, and many more. 

CLAY leadership grew the conference’s attendance from just 30 attendees last year to nearly 100 attendees this year! The group’s leadership team worked tirelessly to make this the most successful conference since the pandemic, raising over $10,000 to make it free for all students and support their pro-life outreach efforts on campus.   

Students from other universities have described this conference as their “favorite event of the year.” Vita et Veritas provides a space for pro-life students and community members to gather, learn, and be reinvigorated in being the voice for the voiceless at Yale and beyond. 

Creating New Outreach Topics  

CLAY creates a voice for the voiceless at Yale. They table bi-weekly, in addition to many other pro-life activities on campus. This year, CLAY has tabled with most of SFLA’s displays, hosted our larger-scale Fall and Spring Tours, set up a Cemetery of the Innocents display, and even started developing their own tabletop displays!   

For instance, CLAY created their own tabling presentation to highlight how turtle eggs are treated with more dignity than preborn children. This idea engaged many students passing by and even changed some minds throughout the event.   

Personal Encounters to Change the Culture 

CLAY works hard and succeeds at building a culture of Life on campus by changing minds on the issue of abortion and supporting pregnant and parenting students. 

At a tabling event this year, a student—originally just a friend of a CLAY member—approached the group with an unexpected confession. After attending CLAY’s annual Vita et Veritas conference, she experienced a profound change of heart:   

“I’ve started calling myself pro-life,” she said.   

But her transformation didn’t stop there. That day, she stayed to join the tabling efforts, striking up conversations with passersby and sharing her new convictions in hopes of sparking similar reflection. The Students for Life logo—a candle lighting another—captures this perfectly: change begins one heart at a time. On campus, CLAY is doing precisely that.   

Not only is CLAY changing minds, but they are also finding ways to help pregnant and parenting students on campus tangibly. This year, CLAY partnered with a local pregnancy resource van to bring free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and counseling to campus for the first time. They also partnered with the Catholic Center on campus, Saint Thomas More, to host a successful pregnancy supply drive and baby blanket-making event for a local pregnancy resource center.  

COMING SOON IN 2025-2026…  

CLAY has even bigger plans for next year. They plan to continue growing their Vita et Veritas conference, with a goal of DOUBLING the conference attendance next year. In addition, they hope to host a debate with the Planned Parenthood Advocacy group on campus and build an even closer relationship with their local Pregnancy Help Center (PHC). Lastly, Raleigh, a member of CLAY and an incoming 2025-2026 William Wilberforce Fellow, plans to work with the graduate school community to build a support group for parenting students.