Students for Life of Illinois

Where did the summer go? It’s almost time to head back to school! That means that it is definitely time to plan for your fall outreach! We have resources to help you prepare for a fall full of saving lives!

Pro-Life Speakers

John-Paul Deddens

John-Paul is the Executive Director of Students for Life of Illinois. He will come speak to your campus group for free to inspire and train your members. He is now open for booking for the fall semester and he would love to help you kick off the year right. Contact us here to book John-Paul: info@prolifeillinois.com

Students for Life of America

SFLA is a great resource! They can send a free speaker to your campus to train you as well. Click here for more details!

Serrin Foster – Feminists for Life

Serrin Foster will be traveling through Illinois near the end of September. Contact us if you are interested in booking her to speak on your campus! info@prolifeillinois.com

Speakers List

SFLI is developing a pro-life speakers list to help you find quality speakers for your campus. We will be releasing this soon. Email us now and we will get it to you as soon as it’s ready! info@prolifeillinois.com

Downloads

You can download some helpful resources here that will aid your planning for the year!

VIP Retreat Videos

Email us at info@prolifeillinois.com with your name, campus, phone number and address and we will give you access to the main videos from the VIP Pro-Life Leaders Retreat. These videos contain tips and tactics for transforming your campus into a campus that respects life!

Activism Days

We have a great line up of Activism Days for this academic year. You can be a part of a multi-campus activism event that spreads the crucial pro-life message to those who need to hear it! Plan now to join us and hundreds of students on other campuses in the following activism days:

On July 17^th, nearly twenty student leaders gave up their Saturday in order to come to a pro-life summer retreat.

SFLI hosted this retreat in order to give pro-life leaders the opportunity to jump-start their pro-life work on their respective campuses in the fall. Retreat participants got specific insights on how to greatly expand the pro-life movement on their different college campuses, and they also had a chance to collaborate with each other and gain perspective and ideas from other leaders like themselves.

Alicia kicked off the retreat with a stimulating talk on what it is to be a true leader. She gave valuable reflections on building a team and working with others, and emphasized the importance of a willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of the greater good.

John-Paul followed up Alicia’s speech with a plan of action. He explained the SFLI method that will change college campuses into campuses that respect the dignity of human life. Through pro-life discussions and mentorship, SFLI will equip students with the knowledge and resources to become active pro-lifers, and SFLI will build up more and more student leaders.

After hearing about true leadership and about the expansion of the pro-life movement on campuses, the student leaders at the retreat broke into smaller groups and discussed among themselves how they could apply these principles to their campuses.

In the afternoon, Lindsay Pyrcik, an SFLI intern, gave a short review of activism. Lindsay gave testimony to her different activism experiences, and suggested the best ways to talk to your peers in any situation about being pro-life.

The retreat attendees split into two groups then in order to participate in a Pro-Life Round Table. John-Paul had explained Round Tables in his talk that morning, and this gave the student leaders a chance to experience it for themselves. A Round Table is a discussion where anywhere from four to ten students meet to talk, think critically, and expand their knowledge about different pro-life issues. During the school year, any one Round Table group will meet about once a week. The student leaders at the retreat had very positive feedback on the Round Table discussions, and are excited to get them going on their campuses!

Following the Round Tables, Jenny Meyer, a pro-life activist, gave the leaders a plethora of tips and techniques on recruiting new members for their pro-life groups and Round Tables, especially during the rush of the first couple of weeks on campus. Jenny explained the importance of building relationships with students who you want to join you in the pro-life movement, and specifically expressing interest in them.

The student leaders were then given another chance to break into smaller groups and talk to each other about how they would implement these ideas on their campuses, and how they could really make use of them.

Finally, the retreat closed with Peter Breen, a board member of SFLI and an attorney for the Thomas More Society, a pro-life law firm. Peter tied the retreat together and gave the leaders a chance to ask any questions that they had on anything to do with the pro-life movement.

From left to right: Kelly, Mary, Erin, Jovana, Laura, Hannah, and Kelly

Speaking from my personal perspective, I thought that this was a great retreat. Since I was one of the coordinators, I didn’t quite get a chance to participate in everything, but I feel that I truly benefited from everything of which I was a part. As a student leader, I found that every topic addressed was completely relevant and helpful, and that I came away with some exponentially useful tips, information, and resources. I can’t wait for the next semester to start so that I can get started – and many of the student leaders at the retreat expressed to me that they feel the same way.

-Rose Schmillen, SFLI Intern

SFLI will be posting video footage of the speakers from this retreat. If you are interested in hearing the speakers, comment on this post or e-mail John-Paul Deddens at johnpaul@prolifeillinois.com.

When pro-life students get together, amazing things can happen. While brainstorming about different ways to activate all the dormant pro-life energy in Chicago area youth, Northern Illinois student Peter Aiura and Willows Academy student Grace Deardurff came up with LIFEapalooza!

With ‘beach volleyball, water mayhem, bags tournaments, and ludicrous amounts of pro-life fun!’ it definitely promises to be one of the best picnics I’ll hit up this summer. Also, I’ve gotten word that hundreds of the who’s who of cool people will be there this Sunday evening!

Check it out:
Where: Knolls Park (right next to Montini Catholic) at 18W771 16th Street, Lombard, IL
When: Sunday July 11 from 11am to 10 P.M

For more information, please visit www.lifeapalooza.webstarts.com, join the Facebook event, or email them at LIFEapalooza@gmail.com.

Don’t forget: Bring a picnic lunch and all of your pro-life friends and also anyone who is curious to learn about the pro-life movement and meet some people involved in it. They will be selling T-shirts and accepting donations for the pro-life cause, but otherwise this event is FREE!
See you there!

Intern Jerry Vachaparambil

The Students for Life of Illinois 2010 Summit is approaching this Fall on October 16th. Our 2010 theme is: Bring Your Campus to Life!

It’s our 4th annual Summit and we are looking forward to coming together with pro-life students from campuses around the Midwest to learn about pro-life issues and find out how to take action to save lives!

Keep an eye out for more exciting information about this summit.

Check out this great event for high school students hosted by the Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Chicago.  I will be one of the speakers and the SFLI interns will be helping out as well. If you’re in high school and want to learn more about saving lives from abortion, this event is for you!  I hope to see you there!

– John-Paul

“Justice and Life 2010″

Youth Leadership Summit

July 19th and 20th, 2010

Join High School Teens from all over Chicago for this exciting two-day summit!  This summit will allow you to meet other teens who care about respecting life, and will also prepare you to be a leader on pro-life issues at your school and parish.

Click Here for the flyer

Click Here for the Registration form.