Meet Christen Polo

We recently connected with Christen Polo and have shared our conversation below.

Christen, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
A good mix of nature and nurture.

I was raised by a Marine. My mom has always had a fighting spirit that she instilled in her kids. She never gave up and taught us to push through whatever setbacks we faced to achieve our dreams and goals.

But I also know I have a natural tenacity as the eldest daughter. I possess a level of internal motivation that drives me to keep moving forward even when it isn’t easy.

That said, I don’t think resilience is something you need to be born with. It can be developed over time if you ensure you have the right mindset when you encounter challenges. I’ve spent nights crying over some situation before ultimately deciding to swallow my weakness and push through. It wasn’t that I wanted to keep moving forward, but that I chose to.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
As the Executive Director of Protect Life Michigan, I am in charge of strategically working to change public opinion on abortion in Michigan.

Abortion conversations are difficult conversations to have, but we have learned how to have them with love and respect. By helping people understand abortion as a human rights violation, 32% of the people we talk to change their beliefs about abortion!

You could say that we’re in the business of helping people change minds and save lives.

Specifically, we focus on recruiting, equipping, and deploying students to change the minds of their peers. After all, 46% of abortions are performed on college-age women. We want them to know they aren’t alone and that non-violent choices are better for them and their child.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Hands down, I think young leaders need to be humble, willing to ask questions, and eager to do everything with excellence.

When I started out in the nonprofit industry 10 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. And I didn’t want to “fake it ’til I made it”. Instead, I decided to surround myself with experienced leaders who were making a difference in their fields. I sought out their guidance, took copious notes, and implemented as much of it as I could.

That humility, combined with a dedication to only do what I could do with excellence, is ultimately what led me to where I am today. Our organization is seen as one of the most strategic pro-life organizations in the country and that’s only the case because dozens of incredible leaders we were willing to show me the way.

My advice to other young leaders would be to sit with the greats, ask lots of questions, and do your best to implement what you learn with excellence.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
So much has changed with abortion laws in the last few years. We celebrated the fall of Roe v. Wade but were quickly grieved by the pro-abortion constitutional amendments that swept the nation.

In the wake of that, I’m finding pro-life organizations and adjacent institutions of power that are wrongly conceding ground to the bad guys.

Yes, we’ve faced some losses. But the solution is not to take our foot off the gas or soften our message that abortion is violence. The solution is to work harder and smarter. We must address the lies of the abortion industry, expose the injustice of abortion, and ensure that we tap into the deep-seated disgust that almost every person has for violence against innocent human beings.

Protect Life Michigan is proving every day that this CAN be done – and we’re willing to share our results with any other allied group who will use them.

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