In addition to our wildly successful undergraduate scholarship program, the Dr. Joseph Graham Fellowship for College Pro-Life Leaders, Texas Right to Life maintains a flourishing graduate scholarship program for both medical and law students. The Dr. Joseph Witherspoon Pro-Life Law Student Scholarship and the Dr. Edward Hannigan Pro-Life Medical Student Scholarship provide Pro-Life graduate students with tools honed to their unique fields of study. The program, which awards students with $1,000 per semester, helps students to establish and cultivate a strong Pro-Life group on campuses across Texas.
We spoke to current scholarship recipients who shared with us their enthusiasm and gratitude for the program. Scholarship recipient Vincent Zimmern, a medical student at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, shares that establishing a Pro-Life group helps to draw Pro-Life students and faculty out of the woodwork in the medical school setting. “A graduate student organization, in this sense, serves an important pedagogical role in a setting where the Pro-Life view is rarely articulated. Indeed, few medical students know or could even imagine that many of the faculty on their campus are Pro-Life and have dedicated themselves to that cause at many levels.”
Texas Right to Life remains in contact with students for the duration of the semester, offering resources and aid whenever they are needed. John Smithee, Jr., a law student at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, shares that Texas Right to Life was integral in the formation and success of his campus Pro-Life group:
“Texas Right to Life has been extremely helpful in furthering my understanding of and ability to share Pro-Life values on my campus and with my peers. Without Texas Right to Life, we would not have a Pro-Life organization on our law school campus. From the start, they have always reached out to me to let me know how they could help. Texas Right to Life has provided valuable information and offered to help bring speakers to our campus. They have been incredibly supportive during the entire process.”
Texas Right to Life is now accepting applications for graduate law and medical students who are enrolled in school for the fall semester of 2015. Details and requirements can be found here. The application deadline is June 20, 2015.