My name is Danya Montiel and I am the vice-president of Dustdevils for Life (DFL), the official Pro-Life organization at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) in Laredo, TX. On June 22, TAMIU hosted Dusty Camp, an orientation session for incoming freshman. During Dusty Camp, the new students meet the many student organizations that are active at TAMIU.
I and a few of our officers were present at Dusty Camp to recruit new members for our Pro-Life organization. As a new Dr. Joseph Graham Fellow with Texas Right to Life, this was a perfect way to use all the dialogue techniques that I learned at Fellowship training this summer to recruit students to join DFL. Because abortion and other Pro-Life issues are controversial topics, I was nervous about whom I would encounter. Luckily, Texas Right to Life Education Associate Sandra Hollier was present. Sandra motivated us to be proactive and speak to the students passing our table. Many students to whom we spoke did sign up for DFL’s mailing list to learn more about meetings, tabling events, speakers, the Memorial of the Innocents display (a project in which 3,000 crosses are set up on campus to represent the number of abortions committed daily in the U.S.), and the Pregnant & Parenting Student Scholarship.
Several of the students who signed up to join DFL shared that they were undecided on the issue of abortion. Others were firmly anti-Life, yet wanted to attend our club meetings to learn why we are Pro-Life. Another young woman shared her experience of being a teen mother, and she had been unaware of the life-affirming resources available to her and her child, both on and off campus. After speaking with us, she was excited to join our club and to be an advocate for pregnant and parenting students at TAMIU. We were pleasantly surprised at how many students were understanding and open to learning about our work to defend innocent human Life on campus. Dustdevils for Life is excited to welcome these new members so that we may create a perfectly Pro-Life culture at TAMIU.
Your support, both financial and through prayer, enables our life-saving work on campus. If you’d like to financially support our new Pregnant and Parenting Student Scholarship, please email us at DustdevilsForLife@gmail.com.