To all my fellow choice supporters:

I have officially been a Planned Parenthood Campaign Organizer intern for about five weeks, and have already seen the benefit of working for this fabulous organization. As a Planned Parenthood organizer on Rep. Barbara McIlvaine Smith's campaign for re-election, I have had the pleasure of speaking with many pro-choice voters in her district. The overwhelming amount of gratitude for our efforts as an organization has perpetually made the calls with uninterested anti-choice voters much more tolerable; however, while I have encountered my fair share of anti-choice voters unwilling to listen to our message, I have also found a small, precious group who were swayed. After overcoming some of my initial nerves when calling people who I had first inappropriately stereotyped as anti-choice, I finally became comfortable discussing these sensitive issues with unlikely choice supporters. Once my confidence level increased, so did my success at recruiting more pro-choice voters!

Working toward opting in Pennsylvania's goal of 25,501 choice voters to the One Million Strong Campaign has helped to bridge my studies and my passion for social justice. As a double major in Political Science and Women's Studies, I was asked to serve as a member on the President's Commission on Women at my university this past academic year. The Commission worked to evaluate the gender climate on my school's campus as well as hiring a full time director for our Women's center and improving women's health services provided. As an advocate for victims of sexual assault, rape and violence on campus, I was disappointed that I had to FIGHT for the administration to even pay attention to the HIGH number of women needing access to emergency contraception and rape counseling through the college's health center. Without a counselor specializing in rape and sexual assault victims on campus, students who are victims of sexual violence can only talk to general counselors who treat hundreds of other students. Realizing that victims really had no where to turn, especially in a highly anti-choice area where only anti-choice organizations exist, I found myself feeling incredibly hopeless.

I admittedly stumbled into the Planned Parenthood Campaign Organizer internship this summer, having the good fortune of meeting two lovely Planned Parenthood Grassroots Organizers at a college internship fair. After talking with them for a few minutes and giving them my resume, I walked away feeling like I had found where I belonged. Sick of fighting with an administration that was not receptive to what the women on their campus needed, I found a group of strong, like minded individuals who all enjoyed fighting for what I fight for: the freedom to make choices about our bodies and live as individuals free of persecution. I could not have been any luckier or happier to have found this group.

-- Ashley, Southeast PA