Meet Francesca!

“The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” – Pope Benedict XVI24 hours before it was due, I still had not completed my Students for Life of Illinois summer internship application. A prospective summer filled with days advocating for the pro-life movement was nerve racking. Yet in my heart, I knew that this was what I was called to do. There are moments in your life you know that you are meant for something greater, that you are meant to change lives. Working for SFLI is just that. I am blessed with the opportunity to not only change my own life, but to impact the lives of others.I grew up in an actively pro-life family, complete with a “40 Days for Life” sign in our front yard every October. I attended a Catholic school in a small town. No one I knew was openly pro-choice. Transferring to the University of Illinois from community college my sophomore year, my experience soon became the opposite. Everyone around me was vocally pro-choice. In fall of 2015, I identified as pro-life similarly to how I identified with a political party. I clearly belonged to one, but I didn’t care too much. But somehow, while there are 1,400 student clubs at the U of I, during quad day, I happened to find the only pro-life club.  As the year progressed, Illini Collegians for Life (ICFL) soon became an important part of my life. My identity was incomplete without it.My scientific knowledge soon progressed. Through learning when the heart starts beating, when a developing child can feel pain, and how an abortion is performed, I was inspired to work harder in the pro-life movement.I couldn’t understand how someone could learn about these things and not think, “Wow, that is a real person.” A baby is a person. At the core of every person is the understanding that life is sacred, but I believe most people just do not realize it yet. I want to help people remember how to value life in every moment - regardless of unborn, race, gender, etc. It is no longer about just abortion, but rather the right to life. The very first unalienable right is the right to life. All lives are valuable and I am committed to ensure my peers learn to respect all life.Francesca is a summer intern with Students for Life of Illinois. She studies Community Health with a concentration in Health Care Planning and Administration with the plans of Dental School at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign.