"During our first semester as a club, we, Students for Reproductive Justice, have accomplished a ton! We went through the lengthy process of gaining club status at James Madison University, which involves jumping through a lot of hoops -- from several workshops, setting up a constitution, naming officers, and presenting our ideas to Student Organization Services on campus. 

We have 39 members in the club and hold meetings every other Monday. Everyone loved Choice USA's orange star t-shirts, so to make it our own, one of our members designed a similar shirt just for our chapter. Joy Lawson from Choice USA visited our campus in October to help us with strategies on how to recruit members and establish goals for the future of our club. 

One of our goals as a club is to better educate our peers and citizens of the community on what the Harrisonburg Pregnancy Center really is. Their advertisements found in our school newspaper and on the public transportation systems in the community are misleading. Some of our members have gone on two undercover visits to the Harrisonburg Pregnancy Center in order to see what services they provide, and they aren't what's been advertised. Seeing this, we decided we needed to provide a resource for the women in our area so they'd know where to find the full range of healthcare services.

Our members researched information about services for women in the area -- gynecological services, birth control providers, STD testing, adoption agencies, child care centers, abortion clinics, counselors, and more. We published all of this information into a directory that we handed out to students on the Commons in early December. 

Here are some other things we did over the semester and we're not stopping here:

• In October we participated in NARAL’s "Run for your Rights" 5K in Fairfax, VA. This was an exciting event because we got to be with men and women around the area all joining together for a good cause. 
• Right before the November election, we worked with the National Organization for Women (NOW) for two days on the Commons of our campus helping them distribute information about women’s rights to students. 
• At the Choice USA visit, we decided to host a potluck dinner once a month where members can invite friends and peers to "bring a dish, bring a story."  This is a great way to allow people to openly discuss any issues relating to sex, reproductive rights, and other issues and to reduce the stigmas associated with them. We held our first potluck dinner at the end of November and it was a huge success. There was a great turnout and a lot of enlightening discussion took place. 

We are very proud of what we have accomplished so far and have many great ideas for next semester."

Keep an eye out for more great updates from our chapters around the country. Click here if you're interested in starting a chapter or finding one in your area.