Natalie Anderson, a homeschooled senior, won the 2025 Grand Rapids Right to Life Senior Prolife Essay Scholarship. Anderson received a $750 scholarship and was nominated for Right to Life of Michigan’s statewide award.
Applicants for the award were required to write an essay reflecting on how their character has grown throughout their journey as a young prolife advocate and how this has influenced their future goals.
In her essay, Anderson detailed how her family’s adoption of a disabled, frail baby affected her decision to have a future in the medical field.
“Learning to care for Esther and her needs has taught me what it truly means to be prolife for every person and situation. Though her biological parents had chosen life for her, nearly everyone else consigned her to a second-class life, if they thought she would live at all,” Anderson explained. “My family and I, however, were given the opportunity to demonstrate that regardless of ability, every life has value.”
As a talented writer, Anderson also won the Prolife Essay Contest in 2025 and placed second in 2024. She attended Leadership for Life Base Camp in 2023, where she learned how to defend her prolife convictions.
After graduation, Anderson plans to study nursing at Cornerstone University.